Western State Hospital Museum Open-House
At that first meeting in 2000, hospital staff, patients and citizens organized themselves into a group they called the Grave Concerns Association. They discussed plans about how to restore the hospital cemetery and bring honor and dignity to the forgotten. Patient advocates, genealogical societies, gardening groups, and cemetery restoration experts offered advice and counsel. Work parties were organized. Memorials were held to honor the dead and reveal the names of those loved ones lost to history. In 2001, the Earth shook the…