Fort Douglas Cemetery

Colonel Patrick Connor laid out this military cemetery in December 1862, and its first graves, dug that February, held soldiers killed weeks earlier at the Bear River. The marker calls it a battle; history has corrected the word. On a frozen January morning in 1863, Connor's troops fell on a sleeping Northwestern Shoshone village and killed some three hundred people, most of them women and children — the deadliest massacre of Native Americans in the West. Connor himself lies here, among the dead of every war since the Civil War, and prisoners who died far from home.

What the plaque says

The Fort Douglas Cemetery was established in December 1862 under the direction of the commanding officer, Colonel Patrick Edward Connor. On 25 February 1863 the first funeral services were held for those soldiers who fell during the battle of Bear River. James Duane Doty, Utah Territorial Governor 1863-1865, was buried on 15 June 1865. General Connor, first commander of Fort Douglas, was laid to rest on 21 December 1891. Those officers and men who have died in the service of their country have chosen this sacred and hallowed ground as their final resting place, they represent Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War 2, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam Conflict. Also interred are 21 German Prisoners of War from World War I, and 20 German, 12 Italian and 1 Japanese Prisoner of War from World War 2. The soldier is required to practice the greatest act of religious training -- sacrifice. He must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. We must remember, only the dead have seen the end of war.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natural History Museum of Utah — 0.2 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City
• Red Butte Garden — 0.4 mi
  A 100-acre botanical garden with panoramic valley views
• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 0.8 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Emigration Canyon — 2.4 mi
  The final stretch of trail the Mormon pioneers took into the valley

More markers nearby

• Original Cemetery Gate — steps away
• Patrick Edward Connor — steps away
• Bear River Battle Memorial — steps away
• German POW World War I Memorial — steps away