Status: Maintained

If one stumbled across this wide open field off a desolate road in the woods, one would never know this was the Potter’s Field for Kings Park Psychiatric Center. If not for a flat plaque at the very foot of the entrance to this mass grave, it could be easily overlooked.

The plaque at the entrance states that hundreds who suffered from mental illnesses are buried here–but we only found around 200 markers on one end of the field. I would imagine that many, many more would be laid to rest here, considering that Kings Park had over 16,000 patients before its doors closed.

It’s very sad to walk around the field and see the markers that bear numbers and very few names. Who were these people? Why do they remain nameless? To this day, one will never know.

- Ember, 2004