Jarbidge residents winning old-fashioned battle over town cemetery

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Oct. 15, 1999 | 11:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A bill that would wrest control of Jarbidge Cemetery in Elko County from the U.S. Forest Service and put it in the hands of locals seems poised to pass the Senate after a favorable hearing Thursday. The House passed the measure last month.

That's good news for the folks of Jarbidge, which lately has become ground zero in old-fashioned Nevada battles between locals and the federal government.

"It's the latest piece of an ongoing Sagebrush Rebellion," Bob Swinford, a Western regional Forest Service spokesman, said.

Throughout state history, disputes have been common between Nevadans -- particularly miners and ranchers -- and the federal government, which owns roughly 87 percent of the state.

Jarbidge, which is in northeastern Nevada, has drawn its share of controversy. Locals in the one-street town near the Idaho border have been trying to rebuild a road on U.S. Forest Service land since a flood washed it out in 1995. The Forest Service has blocked the effort. The development would endanger bull trout in the Jarbidge River, officials say.

A federal judge stepped in last week to prevent a peaceful mob of locals from taking up shovels to rebuild the road themselves.

Controversy over the cemetery has simmered for years, too. The one-acre plot dates back to at least 1915 and is an important part of the town's history, Jarbidge elders say. But the land also is part of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, run by the Forest Service.

The citizens of Jarbidge -- 30 permanent residents, plus 50 or 100 during the summer months -- want control of the acre plus one adjacent acre for the future. They want the land title transferred from the Forest Service to Elko County.

"We've said we want to own it and have it in our citizens' name," Elko County Commissioner Roberta Skelton said.

"There's a lot of people buried up there that we know," added 80-year-old Philip Joyal, a Jarbidge native. "There's people who live here now who want to be buried up there someday."

But the Forest Service by law must demand fair market value for the land and will not simply hand it over.

So Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., have been pushing bills to transfer the cemetery to the county.

"Elko County is a place that seems to have a number of conflicts with the federal government," Reid on Thursday told members of the Senate subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management. "We can do a lot to begin to establish better public relations by giving them their own cemetery."

Subcommittee chairman Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, shook his head in agreement. "Only in Western states" do residents have to beg Congress for one acre for a cemetery, he said.

"It's an unfortunate turn of events that requires us to have to bring a bill before Congress," Gibbons said. "For this bill to be opposed by the administration reflects a struggle of the West with the government in the East."

County Commissioner Skelton agreed skirmishes with the Forest Service have been frustrating.

"It's kind of like we are the children, and they are the parents," said Skelton, whose grandparents are buried in Jarbidge. "We get a spanking anytime we deviate from what they think is best."

The full Senate must still pass the bill -- likely within a few weeks, Reid said.

Joyal said the sleepy old mining town was eager to put the issue to rest. The retired Air Force colonel returned to his hometown after a 28-year military career.

"We just love the place -- the mountain area, the solitude," Joyal said. "We ran all over these mountains when we were little kids, and I'm still running around these mountains. One thing I've noticed is the hills have gotten a little steeper."

Joyal first attended funerals at the Jarbidge Cemetery 70 years ago. Now he can scarcely believe all the controversy.

"All over two little ol' acres of sagebrush," he said.