To offset the overcrowding at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Washington, Northern State Hospital (NSH) in Sedro-Woolley, Washington was built. Some patients assisted with construction and the hospital was officially dedicated in 1912. The campus encompassed 1,086 acres. Many patients worked on the hospital farm and in various other industries as part of the occupational therapy program. Patients who passed away at NSH, whose remains went unclaimed, were buried in the hospital cemetery on the northeast edge of the property. Because of privacy laws at the time, graves were only marked with a concrete block containing a plot number and the patient's initials. Most of the grave markers have since been removed or have sunken into the soggy ground. Catholics were always buried in caskets. After the crematorium was constructed in 1927, the remains of non-Catholics were cremated. Cans of unclaimed cremated remains were either buried in between graves or in common plots. About 1,500 patients are said to have been buried in the hospital cemetery. In July 1953, a state law was passed that prohibited state institutions from burying or cremating their deceased residents. After this, the remains of many NSH patients were buried in local cemeteries including Union Cemetery in Sedro-Woolley and Hawthorne Memorial Park in Mount Vernon. NSH closed in 1973 when the state government no longer wanted to fund it. A complete cemetery plot map has never been found. Before the crematorium was demolished, 204 cans of ashes, marked with patient numbers, were discovered there. They were taken to Hawthorne Memorial Park and in 1983 were buried in a common grave with no names on the headstone. The Northern State Hospital Cemetery is east of Sedro-Woolley and north of SR-20 on Helmick Rd., ¼ mile past the entrance to the Northern State Recreation Area. Park in the gravel lot or if the gate is locked, park along the road and walk in. The NSH Cemetery is currently owned and maintained by the City of Sedro-Woolley. (Text by Janine Schutt)