Dave Stultz, manager of the historic Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City, examines on Wednesday the broken tombstone of the grandchildren of Abraham Curry, one of founders of the capital city. Law enforcement authorities are searching for the vandals, who toppled and damaged 32 tombstones. Photo by The Associated Press

RENO -- Law enforcement authorities are searching for vandals who toppled and damaged more than two dozen headstones at one of Nevada's oldest cemeteries, the latest in a long string of such crimes statewide.

Among 32 headstones damaged last weekend at Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City were ones belonging to three grandchildren and a son of Abraham Curry, who is regarded as the "father" of the capital city. The grandchildren were no older than 2 when they died in 1861, 1865 and 1870.

"To tip over the headstone of a baby is just awful," cemetery manager David Stultz said Wednesday.

"I just don't understand how anybody can do something like that."

While Curry's headstone was not disturbed, the gravestones of other pioneers were damaged, Stultz said. Curry helped lay out the town in Utah Territory before his death in 1873, and is honored by a statue on the Legislative Mall.

Also escaping damage were the headstones of Mark Twain niece Jennie Clemens, legendary stage coach driver Hank Monk and six Nevada governors.

Footprint evidence shows that at least two people knocked over the headstones sometime late Friday or early Saturday, Stultz said. One gravestone was broken off at the base, while four or five others were snapped in half. Others were chipped.

"You could see the hand and butt prints in the dirt where they were sitting and using their feet to knock them over," cemetery caretaker Tim Glancy told the Nevada Appeal.

"These are really historic markers. There's no way to duplicate these," Glancy said, adding that workers spent all day Tuesday uprighting unbroken headstones.

Stultz said that some of the markers could be mended with epoxy but that the repairs probably would not last over time because of the area's weather extremes.

State Archivist Guy Rocha said that vandalism long has been a problem at cemeteries across the state, and that the Carson City cemetery has been hit by vandals before.

On Halloween 1997, skulls of prominent local lawyer Patrick Henry Clayton, who died in 1871, and his wife, who died in 1905, were stolen from a family crypt at Lone Mountain Cemetery.

The skulls later were returned to the crypt after one of the grave robbers admitted he sold one skull for $400 and some methamphetamine.

Also in 1997, cemeteries in Carson City and nearby Virginia City were victims to a team of thieves who stole wrought-iron fences surrounding the areas for an antiques dealer.

Local officials estimate that one item a day is stolen during the summer from cemeteries around Virginia City, which draws nearly 1 million visitors from around the world each year.

"Almost anyplace that has a cemetery not patrolled constantly is plagued by vandalism," Rocha said.

"There are people bent on doing such ugliness, and it's hard to catch them, particularly in remote areas."

Marilyn Newton, author of "Alkali Angels" -- a book about historic Nevada cemeteries -- said she hopes that a 2005 state law making cemetery vandalism and theft a felony will help deter such crimes.

"It's totally sick that someone would destroy something that's part of our heritage," said Newton, a veteran photographer at the Reno Gazette-Journal.

"But it's no longer a slap on the wrist (for those who) vandalize and steal from Nevada cemeteries, and the new law will make sure that those who get caught will get punished," she added.