Historic Prospect Hill--Omaha's Pioneer Cemetery

Black Omahans were buried on this hill from the 1860s on. In 1981 young people from the Girls Club of Omaha, now Girls Inc., combed the cemetery's records for a study called Project Prospect and counted more than 800 African American burials between 1863 and 1971, at least ten of them Buffalo Soldiers. They include Pvt. Richard Curry, a Civil War veteran and first Master of Nebraska's Prince Hall Masons in 1868, and Sgt. Allen McClare, a Spanish-American War veteran who died in 1944. The first recorded Black burial, in 1863, is of someone whose name is lost.

What the plaque says

Historic Prospect Hill-- Omaha's Pioneer Cemetery Founded in 1858 by Byron Reed, early Omaha real estate developer and financier, Prospect Hill is the final resting place for over 15,000 citizens. While burial permit No. 1 was issued for Territorial Legislator Alonzo Salisbury on October 4, 1858, many were already buried here in the Cedar Hills and Omaha City Cemeteries, parts of which are within today's Prospect Hill boundaries. Many prominent Omahans lie here. They gave their names to Omaha streets, schools and churches, and to many Nebraska counties and towns. There are veterans from every American war beginning with the War of 1812. Also interred here are nearly 100 soldiers who died on active duty during the Civil War or while serving at Omaha Barracks (Fort Omaha) from 1863-1887. In 1887, administrative affairs were taken over by Forest Lawn Cemetery. However, in the 1890's, lot owners formed an Association to operate Prospect Hill. It continues to function. Omaha's pioneer cemetery, Prospect Hill, remains an active cemetery as well as an historic site which chronicles the growth and development of Omaha and Nebraska. Prospect Hill Cemetery Historical Foundation Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Malcolm X Birthsite — 1.0 mi
  The North Omaha lot where Malcolm Little was born in May 1925 and his family was driven out by the Klan, saved by Rowena Moore and now planned as a cultural center.
• Joslyn Art Museum — 1.4 mi
  Omaha's free art museum, a 1931 Art Deco memorial with two modern pavilions, and the keeper of Karl Bodmer's watercolors from the upper Missouri in 1833 and 1834.
• The Durham Museum (Omaha Union Station) — 2.4 mi
  Omaha's 1931 Union Station, Gilbert Stanley Underwood's Art Deco depot for the Union Pacific, closed to trains in 1971 and kept as a city museum with its waiting room intact.
• Winter Quarters and the Mormon Pioneer Cemetery — 4.0 mi
  The Latter-day Saint camp of 1846 to 1848 on Omaha land in what is now Florence, where hundreds died the first winter, and the cemetery and trail center beside it.

More markers nearby

• Duchesne Academy — 0.8 mi
• Malcolm "X" — 1.0 mi
• Creighton University — 1.1 mi
• Nebraska School for the Deaf — 1.2 mi