Marwood and the Animals

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Could you be a hitman with a sense of humor? Apparently there was one who worked for mobsters in Las Vegas. Rumors are that he would take snitches or those "who knew too much" on a one way trip to the desert, and give them a final resting place next to Spot and Kitty.

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Marwood Doud and Emory Lockette c.1962

What better place to hide a body than in the lonely desert around Las Vegas? Sitting in a flash flood area, no doubt some bones have been swept away into the gullies that pockmark the land as the years have gone by. Coyotes and other animal have also done their part to scatter bits of skeletons across the nearby landscape. 

If police, joggers, hikers or sightseers stumbled across a jumble of bones, most likely it would be assumed they belonged to Fido, and not Fredo. More than likely this story is an urban legend, but who knows. 

When the cemetery was officially established in 1964 on 15 acres, Las Vegas was already booming after World War II. By then the ill-fated Bugsy Siegel had established the Flamingo Hotel, and millions thronged to the area to gamble and enjoy the shows.

It's a spot of land about four miles south of Railroad Pass on Searchlight Highway past Boulder City. Back in the 1950s, Boulder City had no veterinarians, so Marwood Doud, who worked with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and sat on the Boulder City advisory council, doubled as the town's unofficial veterinarian. He loved animals and volunteered to help people with their pets, and never charged for it. 

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El Dorado Valley Pet Cemetery c.1960s

It's inevitable that Marwood couldn't save all of them. The heartbroken owners now needed a place to bury their animals, and leave a sweet memorial to happier times. Doud asked a friend Emory Lockette to help find a plot of land to use as a cemetery. They found a place close to the Boulder City Cemetery, but someone on the city council opposed it.

Their next choice was a spot off US Highway 95, thought to soon be part of Boulder City. This didn't occur as expected and it remained federal land. There are sources who say the land was used to bury animals as early as 1931 in an unofficial manner, which could possibly indicate why Doud and Lockette decided on this spot as their second choice. 

Boulder City was a happening place in 1931, since it gave out its first marriage certificate for Ray Rutherford, 21, and Elsie Phillips, 16. It's not strange to think that pet owners would go out to the middle of the nowhere to bury their beloved pets, when all that was out there was desolate desert.

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The statue with a flashlight shining on its head. But what is that in the background? c.2013 (Source - T.DiFronzo/Pinterest)

First the people came from Boulder City, but then through word-of-mouth others came from different parts of southern Nevada to bury their animals. Not only were there dogs and cats, but horses, snakes, lizards, a fish and donkeys are interred as well.

Throughout the years it unofficially went by different names such as the El Dorado Valley Pet Cemetery, the Marwood Doud Cemetery, the Boulder City Pet Cemetery and the Searchlight Pet Cemetery. Remember this little boneyard existed on federal land.

​Emory Lockette, who acted as caretaker would charge to build coffins and erect fence posts. The cost for a small dog was $25 or $35 for a large dog. This would include picking up the remains, building the coffin and burying the pet.

There seemed to have been an increase of burials starting in 1965, possibly when word got out about Lockette's services.

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Flash, son of Rin Tin Tin died in 1966

Only one quasi-famous pet is buried there, it's Flash the son of Rin Tin Tin who died in December, 1966.

For every marker that's still visible, untold ones have been erased by wind, sun and sand. Flash floods and coyotes are another factor that have destroyed memorials through the years.

​Occasionally the federal government squawked about the use of the land, but mostly ignored the presence of the graveyard; that is until the 1990s. A decision was made to use this area as a tortoise habitat. This meant removing anything that was non-native, and this most definitively included a pet cemetery. Concerned citizens made a deal with the government, and it was left "as is". From this point on it would be illegal to inter an animal there.

Memorials, some simple, others more elaborate poke between the boulders and sagebrush. Despite the warning that no burials are permitted, there are those with dates as recent as 2015. A haunting connected to the cemetery is the sighting ​of a white cat that follows you around, but no doubt there are more that could be seen, for those with eyes to see.

Some of the memorials that the unforgiving sun and wind have spared read:

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Kendall “Kenny” Cat. February 1987 - June 2012

Diamond Dog , 1990 - 2006

Honey Hilton, 1961 - 1969
Memorial Reads "She Was Loveable"
(The carved placard indicates this was a boxer)

​Beast “One White Toe” Simecka
Jan. 1999 - Jan. 2006
Beast was a 100 Lb brindle colored Pitbull/Rottweiler owned by Keith Simecka. Beast suffered from many health problems due to a traumatic experience that occurred in the first year of his life resulting in a brain tumor that ended his life so early. He was talkative, gentle natured and wore a hoodie and booties. Family and friends attended his funeral he was loved by many.

Killer Unknown
June 30, 1974 - June 5, 1985