Bowers Family Cemetery Trail

The Bowers Family Cemetery Trail is a well-maintained walk under trees—a short climb from the backside of Washoe County's Bowers Mansion to the Bowers Family grave site. The tombstone of Comstock millionaires Sandy and Eilley Bowers and their children is located at the end of the trail.

Pentagonal Bowers Family tombstone

On your way up, you will get a chance to view—through the pine trees —the mansion with its octagonal rooftop structure.

Bowers Mansion rooftop

From the grave-site platform, grand vistas of Washoe Lake and the Virginia Range can be enjoyed.

View of Washoe Lake and parts of the Virginia Range from grave site

Engraved in the pentagonal tombstone are the names of Lemuel Sanford Bowers (1833-1868), called Sandy Bowers, Alison Oram Bowers (1826-1903), called Eilley Bowers, and the names of their children, who died young: John, Theresia and Margaret Persia. Sandy died of miner's lung disease: silicosis.  Eilley outlived her husband (Sandy was her third one) and her children. In 1876, according to the onsite information kiosks, the mansion was put into foreclosure. The story goes that Mrs. Eilley Bowers—one of the richest women of America for some years—died penniless in Oakland, California.  

The Bowers Family Cemetery Trail starts with stairs.

 

 Address of the Bowers Mansion

4005 Old U.S. Highway 395
Washoe Valley, Nevada 89704

Getting there

Driving south on Old U.S. Highway 395, pass the Davis Creek Regional Park entrance and exit the “highway” at the Bowers Mansion Regional Park sign (shown to the left). Continue southward on the park road past the mansion grounds and find parking in the paved area at the end of the road. A short walk across the play ground and picnic greens takes you to the backside of the mansion. The marked trail to the hillside graveyard starts next to the Bowers Root Cellar building.

Bowers Mansion phone number: (775) 849-0201.

More to explore

Bowers Mansion Tombstones, Washoe County, Nevada. Photos by Holly Hart of Oxnard, California. Link: www.usgwarchives.net/nv/washoe/photos/tombstones/bowers/bowers.html.
Allison “Eilley” Oram Bowers. Find A Grave. Link: www.findagrave.com/memorial/24651681/allison-bowers.  
Lemuel Sanford “Sandy” Bowers. Find A Grave. Link: www.findagrave.com/memorial/24651675/lemuel-sanford-bowers.
Bowers Mansion. National Park Service. Link: www.nps.gov/nr/travel/nevada/bow.htm.