I'm hoping to get out and document some headstones for findagrave.com soon, since the weather has warmed up a bit. Other than the standard Custer County/Calvary/Old Calvary/Veteran's, I've tried to come up with more photographically-neglected ones. When I look through their list of cemeteries, though, I'm finding:

"Ft. Keogh Cemetery" GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 46.38000, Longitude: -105.88750

"Mackenzie Cemetery" has no location other than Custer County

"Pine Crest Cemetery" GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 46.45640, Longitude: -105.77890 (appears to be along Valley Drive)

Also, one listed as "Pine Hills School Cemetery" which I'm pretty sure isn't a school cemetery. :P

If anyone has any idea where I can find these beyond GPS coordinates, or a good general set of directions, I'd sure appreciate it.

Jessica:

The link below will take you to Web Soil survey, which I believe you will find helpful in your endeavor.

-Click on the green start button "Start WSS".
-Click on Latitude and Longitude
-Enter the Lat-lon numbers. 46.38000, -105.88750
-Press enter
It will display the location on an aerial photo with all of the road names.

http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/

Pine Crest (aka Sunset Memorial Garden) is about 2.5- 3 miles out on valley drive east across from Muggli lane.

Ft Keogh cemetery is 980 feet to the west of the Main building. Easy to get to with the photo. Be sure to stop in the office and let them know your there.

Fluffy Gardens- behind the house at 2311 Dickinson, near the elm tree.

FH

I believe the Fort Keogh graves were moved to the Little Big Horn military cemetery. The Pines Hill School Cemetery was for the school kids and is still there. There are not individual markers but one with all the names listed. It is now the state prison school for boys so you need to check with them on access. The are some girls there also because it was the state school for both when it started but changed to just boys when the birth rate started climbing.

[This message has been edited by Steve Allison (4/20/2012)]

Thank you Richard! That's incredibly helpful.

Steve - That's very interesting. I had a hard time fathoming that something like that would even exist, but now I'll have to see what I can do to go take a few pictures.

Frank, I'll leave Fluffy Gardens up to you. :P

Sunset Memorial Gardens. All the known grave were moved to the Custer County Cemetary back in the late 90's. Because the cemetary was neglected and overgrown. so the county elected to move all the residents to the county and turn that into a sort of park as they can't sell it because of the chance that they might have missed a grave.

There are some graves in what used to be the old Catholic cemetery which is near the old Sunset Memorial Gardens on the Broadus highway. Moving bodies gets technical because legally, you must get permission of the family to move them. That's why the old Catholic cemetery in Bozeman sits there on the Seventh Ave. exit, sucking up some mighty pricey property.

BTW, the "Pine Hills School" is the colloquial name for the state Reform or Industrial School i.e. Junior prison. In the old days, it was co-ed and kids were sent there just because their parents couldn't care for them. Kids even requested to be sent to Pine Hills so they could get food, shelter, clothing and education. The graveyard was abandoned about the time the school went boys only and the girls went to Helena.

And yes, all the graves at Fort Keogh were moved to the Little Bighorn Battlefield around 1910. Also moved bodies buried at Fort Custer, Fort Smith and some other abandoned military posts.

This is some excellent information! Thank you so much!

Sunset Memorial Gardens. All the known grave were moved to the Custer County Cemetary back in the late 90's. Because the cemetary was neglected and overgrown. so the county elected to move all the residents to the county and turn that into a sort of park as they can't sell it because of the chance that they might have missed a grave.

The Sunset Memorial is a small enough site one could easily use ground penetrating radar an verify that nobody was left behind. The sale of the land for homesites would more than cover the cost of the site investigation.