A brief explanation of the burial process at potters field
Prior to 1963 people interred in the County's indigent cemetery were buried in individual plots. This resulted in a cemetery that was very quickly running out of space. On June 11, 1963 the Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance that required all future burials only be cremated remains placed in mass graves to accommodate the ever growing number of interments.
From 1963 to 2018 burials occurred every few years.
As someone died and determined to be an indigent (without family and means, or family is unable to provide for burial), the remains were sent to the Coroner's office.
Abandoned bodies (unclaimed) were held for 30 days before cremation, then the cremains were held pending the collection of a sufficient number (up to 450) of cremated remains to fill a grave.
Cremated remains were held for a sufficient time after death so that at any time prior to the burial, an individual's ashes could be reclaimed for private
burial (in the past one or more years). Although each person's ashes remain in their own individual containers, once the cremated remains are buried, they can not be claimed or disintered.
In September 2018 the Sheriff decalred there was no more room in the cemetery, and starting in September 2019 after holding the remains for the 30 days required by law, the Coroner's office contracted to have the cremains scattered at sea.
Contact the Fresno County Coroner's office at (559) 600-3400 for more information.
The first mass grave is located in Fresno County Cemetery # 2, in row 37 South, grave 51. Seven more have followed, the last being in 2018 at row 37 South, graves 58 & 59, for deaths that occurred up to June 2017. Only one of these graves has a marker (see 1995 Fresno Bee articles), the 1995 burials in row 37 South, grave 53. see map
At present, infants are no longer included in the mass burial. Services for infants are now provided by the Garden of Innocence project, and are interred in Mountain View Cemetery.
Eugene Sibleycreated November 2015
updated Sept. 11, 2025