Old West Pioneer Cemeteries of the Desert (pt. 1)

The Cemeteries out west here are so very, very different from what you find anywhere else in the country. Whether it’s New Mexico, Nevada, parts of California, Oregon or Washington, Idaho, Montana or Colorado or Wyoming; they all tell the same tale of very hard living. Most graves, those that remain I mean, indicate very few people lived to old age in those early years of pioneering.

1922 is hardly “Old Pioneer Era” which ranges across most of the 19th century. That said, life was much the same this far out as it had been fifty years prior. If disease or injury didn’t get you…

Something else might. The picture above is of the Camp Polk Cemetery just outside of Sisters, Oregon. In the 1800’s it was an outpost the Federal Army had setup to fight indian tribes that were attacking settlers. It was fairly quickly abandoned however, having been fairly well ineffective and too far out of the way. The sad truth is that many, if not most of the Pioneer Cemeteries in the area were originally decorated with wooden crosses or markers.

Many of these wooden markers are lost to time and elements. Frequently Pioneer Cemeteries out here in the desert will look sparse. That’s often not the case. Plots that appear to be “empty” are not. Their markers have simply erroded away and families have moved away or lost touch with their origins. Thus there is often no way to verify who is where, and a lot of rich history is unfortunately forever gone.

Citizens of these homesteads haven’t given up!

Antelope is officially listed as a Ghost Town, but there’s still a functioning population of about 50 residents or so. Many of whom still care for the cemetery, and have knowledge of the history in the land. Fort Rock is much the same, though Sisters is in fact an active and healthy tourist / retirement town of 1700 residents. Culver is small, but has been growing as well. It seems that any town east of Hwy 26 on the road between Bend and Portland is all but a ghost town. There one exception seems to be Prineville (pop 10,000.) All of these towns, or nearly all (especially on the norther corridor of Highway 97 between Madras and Biggs Junction) have rich histories in Pioneer Cemeteries, Ghost Towns, or both!

If you’re from here or visiting, you’re in for some spectacular views as you explore on your day trips – usually not even anywhere near a cemetery, but on your way!

Believe it or not, the Tygh Valley is smack dab in the middle of the Oregon Desert.

A very pretty Cemetery! Tygh Valley has a population of just 200 or so, but is considered by some to be the beginning of the almost famous Barlow Road. This was a major road for wagon trains who wanted to bypass The Dalles on their north-south trip.

This is a fine introduction to the desert cemeteries of the Old West! I have literally hundreds (if not thousands) of pictures from these cemeteries, so expect plenty more!

Also coming soon to a blog post near you will be the Old West Pioneer Cemeteries of the Coastal Valley, where it’s wet and very, very green!

Until Then!

1 Comment

• 

  By John Grant, June 12, 2009 @ 7:03 am

  Hey Joshua,

  You really have come a long way with your blog. Very, very, impressive. I shall be a frequent visitor, for sure. Great job! JTG

Other Links to this Post

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

*Name

*Email (not published)

Website