Missoula Cemetery

Missoula Cemetery is the second oldest cemetery located in Missoula, Montana, with Fort Missoula Cemetery being the oldest. The Missoula Cemetery was first established in 1884 by the Missoula Valley Improvement Company, a corporation owned by prominent citizens Isadore Cohn, Frank Woody, William H.H. Dickinson and Thomas C Marshall. The land where the cemetery would be built was purchased from the Northern Pacific Railroad for $168. The cemetery was eventually sold to the City of Missoula in 1901, for the total of $1.

The Missoula Cemetery was created in 1884 to house those who had succumbed to the harsh life of a small mill town. The cemetery initially had very wide-set roads for easy access by wagon. Eventually, the waning use of wagons made the wide roads obsolete and the cemetery had to be renovated. The roads through the cemetery have since been narrowed to allow for more plots. The Missoula Cemetery has many of the town's original founders buried there. C. P. Higgins and his family, who once had their graves at the base of Whitaker Hill on the southern side of Missoula, now have their bodies buried in the Missoula Cemetery.

The Missoula Cemetery began as a small 16-acre (65,000 m²) plot of land purchased out of necessity. The lack of modern medicine, prominence of disease, paired with the dangerous habits of the late 19th-century West made life expectancy low and dictated the need for a cemetery. The original founders, the Missoula Valley Improvement Company, owned the cemetery for many years, only relinquishing it to the City of Missoula in 1901. Upon purchasing the land, the City Council appointed the first Board of Trustees to manage the maintenance of the cemetery. It consisted of Samuel Bellew, Harriet Keith, E. A. Winstanley, Mrs. F. H. Woody, Lizzie Mills and Lucinda Worden. The current trustees are Marjorie Jacobs, Sharee Fraser, Carol Gorden, Patrick J. McHugh and Mary Lou Cordis.

The Missoula Cemetery still holds the same location as when it was founded in 1884, about three miles (5 km) northwest of the city's center. The cemetery has since grown from 16 acres (65,000 m²) to a total of approximately 80 acres (320,000 m²). Only 40 acres (160,000 m²) of the plots are occupied by graves. The remaining 40 have been purchased by the City of Missoula for further expansion and development.

Some of the more prominent locals of Missoula's past have bold elaborate tombstones to commemorate their lives, like Francis Worden's large marble tombstone. Others are made of simple marble that masks their renowned accomplishments in life, like Jeanette Rankin's black stone with a plainly marked face. Below is a short list of some of the better-known characters of Missoula's past, beginning with their name and followed by their death date.

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