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Evergreen Cemetery
Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona

GPS: 31.429785, -109.891281

103 Douglas Rd
Bisbee, AZ 85603

Published: September 7 ,2019
Total records: 12,893

Evergreen Cemetery is owned and operated by the City of Bisbee.

History

Evergreen Cemetery was designated for use in 1896 and was officially established on May 3, 1912 as a replacement for the original cemetery, which was located on Brewery Gulch Avenue in the main business area of Bisbee. The original deeded land area for the cemetery was obtained from the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company (later acquired by Phelps Dodge Mining Company). The original site plans and records for Evergreen have been lost, most likely in a fire during the early 1900s.

Records indicate that burials may have taken place in the area of Evergreen as early as 1892. However, the period of significance begins in 1896, the date the site in Lowell was designated for the new cemetery. From 1896 on, the majority of burials in the Bisbee region took place in Evergreen Cemetery.

Before Evergreen Cemetery was established, back when the Bisbee area was still known as Mule Gulch, the city's deceased were buried in any available plot of land. It was not until the 1880s that a site on Brewery Gulch Avenue was established for Bisbee's first proper cemetery. In 1883, the first burials took place in what today is referred to as the "Old Cemetery". Later, sanitary problems due to the fear of contaminating nearby domestic wells, flooding, and a lack of grave space as a result of the town's population expansion, made the selection of a new cemetery necessary.

In 1896 a site in Lowell, which would eventually become known as Evergreen Cemetery, was designated for the new cemetery. Though some records indicate that a few burials continued at the Brewery Gulch cemetery until at least October 1898, from 1896 on the majority of new burials took place at Evergreen. Ordinance 175 of the Bisbee Common Council formally established the Evergreen Cemetery in the Bisbee suburb, on May 3, 1912.

Records indicate that burials may have taken place in the area of Evergreen as early as 1892. These burials where located on the former Protection Claim, regardless that the legal title had not yet been formally transferred. This did not occur until 1908 when the title was obtained from Lake Superior & Pittsburgh. The western portion of this section contained the original potter's graves, referring to the poverty-stricken or unknown. These were maintained with mowed grass into the 1960s. These graves were unmarked as the original markers were probably wooden or temporary in nature and thus later lost. Today, this area is no longer maintained as a portion of Evergreen, instead it is an adjacent service yard.

The eastern portion of the cemetery was established on the Mountain Maid Claim in 1903. The front portion of Evergreen lies on portions of the Erie Cattle Claim, the Last Chance Claim, the Reindeer Claim and the Cottontail Claim. The date when these were obtained from their owner, Calumet & Arizona, is not clear. Later additions were dated to July 10, 1911 and July 28, 1911.

There are estimated to be ten thousand graves at Evergreen Cemetery, but the number may be higher considering there are double burials, mass graves, cremations, and infants that were buried in open graves by sextons for minimal or no charge.

The cemetery is sometimes also referred to as the Lowell Cemetery.

Cemetery Records

Records published here were acquired from the City of Bisbee on September 7, 2019. These records were originally transcribed by city workers from original handwritten registers.

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