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Dan Olson and Jeffrey Thompson
HASTINGS, Minn.

Photos: Remembering the buried and anonymous

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Remembering those who died
Lifeworks staff member Jodi Iverson pushes Joey Bourgoin as they, Steven Breyer, left, Jennifer Ziemer, right, and other Lifeworks clients lay flowers on gravestones at the Hastings State Hospital Cemetery in Hastings, Minn. Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. The group participated in a dedication ceremony at the cemetery for hospital patients who were once buried anonymously, with unmarked stones.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson

The asylums are long gone, but the unknown graves remain in Hastings and around Minnesota. Advocates for the mentally ill have pressed to find the cemeteries and identify the dead.

Gallery
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Overlooking a nature preserve
Siri Western looks over a nature preserve at the Hastings State Hospital Cemetery in Hastings, Minn. Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. Western attended a dedication ceremony at the cemetery where her great-great uncle, a former patient at the hospital, is memorialized with a proper gravestone.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson
1 of 8
Remembering those who died
Lifeworks staff member Jodi Iverson pushes Joey Bourgoin as they, Steven Breyer, left, Jennifer Ziemer, right, and other Lifeworks clients lay flowers on gravestones at the Hastings State Hospital Cemetery in Hastings, Minn. Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. The group participated in a dedication ceremony at the cemetery for hospital patients who were once buried anonymously, with unmarked stones.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson
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Leading dedication
Remembering With Dignity community organizer Halle O'Falvey, center, leads a dedication service at the Hastings State Hospital Cemetery in Hastings, Minn. Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. O'Falvey's group has helped properly mark more than 7,100 graves of institutionalized patients across the state.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson