Northern State Hospital Cemetery

Northern State Hospital Cemetery This page is dedicated to the cemetery for Northern State Hospital in Sedro-Woolley, Wa. It seems that there may be some exceptions to this around the 1930s.

The first person was buried in the cemetery on 01/16/1911 and the last was on 12/14/1952. The policy at NSH was to cremate all patients (whose bodies were not claimed by family) unless it was against the religious beliefs of the patient (Catholic patients, etc.). Upon the death of a patient, relatives would be contacted for their preference. It seems that the cremated remains of Protestant patients may have been buried here, at least for a period of time. The crematorium was not constructed until 1927 so there were no cremations at NSH prior to 1927. Cremated remains that were buried in the cemetery were not buried in marked graves, as they were often buried between graves. However, this is something that remains a mystery. While the burial list that has been complied seems to be fairly thorough, there are some burials missing from the list. For this reason, the exact number of patients buried in the NSH cemetery is uncertain. On July 10, 1953 a law passed declaring that “State institutions have no authority to embalm, bury, cremate or otherwise dispose of unclaimed bodies of deceased inmates.” For this reason, no one who died after this date would be buried in a state institution cemetery in Washington State. The current burial list contains:
840 “natural” burials
717 cans of cremated remains
There are at least 41 people missing from the list. When NSH was closed, there were 204 containers of cremated remains stored in the morgue. The containers were tin cans which had been obtained from the Hospital cannery, with the deceased's hospital number printed on each in grease pencil. In 1983, the cans were buried in a plot at Hawthorne Cemetery in Mount Vernon. These 204 burials have not been added to the burial list (yet).

10/31/2025

HELP NEEDED ON THE BURIAL RECORDS PROJECT.

Construction on the cemetery is supposed to start in January, and part of the project includes a memorial listing the names of everyone buried there. There’s still a lot of work to do on the burial records that will be used for the memorial — there are over 1,600 names, and it’s about half finished. I just don’t have the time to put into it right now, so I’m hoping to find someone who can help move it forward.

I’m looking for a volunteer who enjoys detailed, methodical research and has good Microsoft Excel skills (sorting, filtering, adding notes, and hyperlinks). You’ll need a computer for this — it’s not something that can be done on a phone or tablet.

Ideally, someone in or near the Skagit area, so we can meet up to go fo over the process.

Message me if you’re interested.

09/21/2025

John K. Davis, 1878-1913, aged 34 years.

09/21/2025

Was finally able to get up to the cemetery to get some work done.

More traction for the cemetery project. :)
07/23/2025

More traction for the cemetery project. :)

Lawmakers say this may be just the first step in recognizing more than 1,600 patients buried in and around the Northern State Hospital cemetery.

07/19/2025

I did a segment with KSVR about the Northern State Hospital Cemetery on July 11th. Here’s the link.

06/23/2024

Made a little progress today. Have a whole lot of work to do to catch up to where I was before.

02/03/2024

John Horne is determined to preserve the stories of those who were left behind.

A bit of investigative work today. :)
12/09/2023

A bit of investigative work today. :)

Address

Helmick Road
Sedro-Woolley, WA
98284

Telephone

+13602309953

Website

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