Pioneer cemeteries

by Annette Stott

"As pioneers attempted to settle and civilize the "Wild West," cemeteries became important cultural centers. Filled with carved wooden headboards, inscribed local stones, and Italian marble statues, cemeteries functioned as symbols of stability and progress toward a European-inspired vision of Manifest Destiny. As repositories of art and history, these pioneer cemeteries tell the story of communities and visual culture emerging together within the developing landscape of the Old West." "Annette Stott traces this story through Rocky Mountain towns on the western frontier, from the unkempt "boot hills" of the early mining camps and cattle settlements to the more refined "fair mounts." She shows how people from Asia, Europe, and the Americas contributed to the visual character of the mountain cemeteries, and how the sepulchral garden functioned as an open-air gallery of public sculpture, at once a site for relaxation, learning, and social ritual. Here, widespread participation in a variet