Clinton signs Jarbidge bill

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Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, May 3, 2000 | 10:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton has signed a bill that transfers a federally held, 2-acre cemetery in Northern Nevada to Elko County.

Clinton's action was a victory for the residents of Jarbidge, who had fought to gain local control of the burial plot. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., carried their torch in Congress, which had approved the bill.

Residents of Jarbidge, with a permanent population of about 30, argued that locals deserved to take title to the cemetery that dates almost to the turn of the century. Town folks view it as important to their history.

Their efforts to wrest the plot from the U.S. Forest Service added to tension between rural Nevadans and the federal government.

Forest Service officials had said they had no objections to transfering the land, but a federal law prohibited the agency from simply handing it over. The Forest Service was willing to sell the property.