History
Silver City Cemetery sits about 13 miles northwest of Helena in Lewis and Clark County, on land that was once the crossroads of the Mullan Wagon Road and Silver Creek. The first grave dates to 1864, when California miner William Brown (born Wilhelm Anderson, a Swede who jumped ship in San Francisco) uncovered gold-rich gravel bars on the Cobelle family's land, sparking a minor gold rush. The town that grew up around it served as a transportation hub, mining community, and briefly a county seat.
Active from 1864 into the 1890s, Silver City included this cemetery, cabins, a school, saloons, hotels, and stores serving miners, stage lines, and freighters on the Benton Road. Gold deposits played out by the late 1870s, but the fertile land drew ranchers and farmers. The community spanned Silver Creek, Little Prickly Pear Creek, and the Hilger Valley.
The cemetery was maintained for years by descendants of the deceased, then transferred to Lewis and Clark County around 2001. It is still active. A 2018 preservation grant from the Foundation for Montana History restored two wooden grave fences that were rotted beyond repair.
Landscape and markers
The cemetery is a physical record of the harshness of the frontier. The dates carved into the markers tell a story of brief booms and sudden collapses, of winters that took the young and mining accidents that took the strong. To walk among these graves is to feel the immense weight of the past pressing down on the present landscape.
Who is buried here
The stones here tell the story of the settlement. Mrs. Silver (1864) - allegedly the first person buried, for whom Silver Creek was reportedly named William Brown (Wilhelm Anderson) - Swedish immigrant who jumped ship in San Francisco, found gold at Silver City, sold his claim to Thomas Cruse John Stemple's daughter - family of Stemple Pass fame Civil War soldiers A Mexican settler A German man, one of the first settlers, married to a Blackfeet woman
Visiting
About 13 miles northwest of Helena. Owned by Lewis and Clark County. Located on private land; access arrangements are unclear so check with the county before visiting. It is a small, still-active community cemetery with simple, mostly unadorned grave markers and fenced plots. On the National Register of Historic Places.