Island Struggles With Lack of Burial Space

"The last person to be buried on Nantucket in a town-owned grave was in 2003 in a discreet plot in the back of the Old North Cemetery."

"The New Town Cemetery next to the high school, meanwhile, last accepted a burial in 1999. It has an unknown number of spaces left, and because some graves are not marked with a headstone, no one is sure where someone's final resting place may be - Nantucket's lone undertaker is not going to take a chance digging a new grave and discovering an old one."

"There are still plenty of plots available in the privately owned cemeteries - Prospect Hill and St. Mary's - but under Massachusetts's general law, the town is required to 'provide one or more suitable places for the interment of persons dying within its limits.'"