City, county partner to house unclaimed remains at Highland Park Cemetery

CASPER, Wyo. — The Casper City Council has agreed to set aside six plots at the Highland Park Cemetery for a columbarium, a structure with niches to inter cremated, unclaimed remains.

City Manager Carter Napier told the council at a work session on Tuesday, Aug. 27 that Natrona County would cover the cost of the structure and that the county commission has approved the MOU.

Zulima Lopez, the city parks and public facilities manager, said there would be little burden on staff to maintain the columbarium and any future columbaria. The first one would hold space for 96 urns. She guessed it may take a decade or more to fill, at which point another would be built on the three adjacent plots.

“We believe it is the right thing to do to give these people a permanent resting place,” Lopez said. “At times, family members do come to claim a loved one … and we would know exactly where they were and who they were.”

Recent changes in state law allowed for the cremation of those who died indigent or otherwise went unclaimed or unidentified. The Natrona County coroner has been keeping the remains thus far, as the law dictates, Lopez said.

Natrona County Coroner Jim Whipps told the commission in May that his office had housed the remains of about 38 people from deaths over the last 10–15 years. All but 18 had been returned by actively seeking family members, Whipps said.