Resthaven Cemetery

Oregon prison inmates now buried at Resthaven Cemetery were studied to understand radiation.

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

Richland, WA

MANAGED BY:

Sunset Gardens and Historic Resthaven Cemetery

Resthaven Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Richland. Founded shortly after the city of Richland in 1909 by the local Odd Fellows Lodge, Resthaven Cemetery is one of the few still functioning institutions from Richland’s pre-war era. Many of early Richland’s settlers are buried in this cemetery. It contains the remains of individuals who were major figures in the community’s history. These early residents could have never imagined the profound and lasting change the Manhattan Project would bring to their community, nor that the remains of Oregon inmates, whose bodies provided crucial information to atomic scientists, would come to rest among them.    
 
During the Cold War, the Oregon Bureau of prisons donated the remains of 115 inmates to the Atomic Energy Commission. All of these people died prior to the first atomic weapons test in 1945. Scientists studied the remains to understand how nuclear detonations impacted the radiation in the environment, and how humans processed this atmospheric radiation. They carefully measured radiographic markers in human teeth, which allowed them to develop a baseline for the naturally occurring radiation prior to the creation of atomic weaponry. This ultimately enabled future scientists to see how their activities increased radiation levels in the environment.  
 

The cremated remains of these individuals remained in the permanent collection of the Battelle National Laboratory for 39 years after completion of the study. A special committee composed of scientists, faith leaders, and attorneys met in the 1990s to determine how best to honor these individuals. In 2004, the committee decided to reinter the cremated remains of these individuals, with honor, at Resthaven Cemetery. Each person now rests in an individual gravesite with an individual headstone so that they can be visited by their family members and descendants.  

Continue Your Journey

 
You can learn more about the pre-war communities of this area by taking a scheduled a Pre-War Historic Sites tour offered by the Department of Energy. Visit the Franklin County Historical Society to explore exhibits, displays, and historic photographs that share what life was like in these early communities.