Pioneer Cemetery

An unusual mix of people share this burying ground. When the first death struck Sessions Settlement in the summer of 1849, the community set aside this plot, and over the next years some twenty were laid here — Mormon pioneers, but also Native people and a lone California-bound emigrant whose headstone faces the other side of the monument. Rising groundwater later pushed the living to open a new cemetery elsewhere. What's striking is who lies together here: settler and Native and passing stranger, buried side by side in the same Utah ground, their separate stories ending on one hillside.

What the plaque says

In the early summer of 1849 the first known death occurred in Sessions Settlement and this plot was selected as a cemetery. Nearly a score of people including pioneers, Indians, and a California emigrant (whose headstone is on opposite side of monument), were buried here. Later sub-irrigation caused the settlers to locate a new cemetery. This spot unites in common brotherhood the Indians, the Mormon pioneers and other emigrants, who died in the conquering of the West.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ensign Peak — 5.9 mi
  A short hike to the spot where Brigham Young surveyed the valley
• Temple Square — 7.2 mi
  The spiritual and architectural heart of Salt Lake City
• Salt Lake City — 7.2 mi
  Utah's capital and largest city — where the Wasatch Range meets the Great Salt Lake.
• Lagoon Amusement Park — 7.6 mi
  A beloved family amusement park operating since 1886

More markers nearby

• Hogan Pioneer Cabin — steps away
• Daniel Wood — 0.9 mi
• Brick-Making in Bountiful — 0.9 mi
• Bliss Hall — 1.1 mi