White Tanks Cemetery - Goodyear, Arizona, USA
N 33° 30.701 W 112° 24.135
12S E 369763 N 3708894
A pleasant potter's field for the poor, indigent and unknown.
Waymark Code: WMBPF6
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 06/09/2011
Views: 6
A nicely laid out and maintained potter's field, this cemetery began in 1994 (according to one source). The markers consist of small round benchmark like bronze metal discs with the name and date of death stamped into it. Benches are placed around the graveyard and some personal decorations have been placed here. Like many cemeteries in Arizona, it is mostly gravel rather than grass lawn. The cemetery is near the end of the runway at Luke Air Force Base. Two F16's flew barely overhead while we were there.
According to a news article in 2004, on Thursdays, a chain gang from the County Jail comes out here to bury the unidentified, the poor and the unclaimed. Between 1993 and 2004, more than 2,000 were buried at White Tanks. Services for unclaimed remains run around $270, plus the cost of the pressed cardboard casket, whereas a traditional funeral could cost around $4000 in 2004.
Link to article here.Based on the numbers above, and calculating how many burials per year, it is possible that there are roughly 3400 graves so far in this cemetery.