Arizona is an interesting place. Even today, there is much remote country, and as I’ve wandered through its deserts and forests (yes, we have forests!), I have been surprised by how many times I’ve come across cemeteries and graves in the most out-of-the-way and unexpected places. I did a survey of place names on Arizona’s topographical maps and found a total of 147 named cemeteries, but I also found 9 places where there was just a “grave” or “graves” shown (I know there are many more than that, though – most are obscure and unknown). Here’s one that’s well-known to desert travelers. Located along the infamous Camino del Diablo, it’s shown on the map as O’Neill’s Grave. It sits in O’Neill Pass in the middle of the O’Neill Hills. It is said that one Dave O’Neill, a prospector, died in 1916 and was buried here. Passers-by leave coins and even bullets on the grave, maybe for good luck? US, Mexican and even Euro coins have been left there.
There’s an obscure memorial to the Oatman family hidden deep in the desert. If you know where to find it, here’s what you’d see.
Sometimes, there’s just a simple marker like this one, a cross remembering someone with the initials CMB, who apparently lived from June of 1912 to April of 1996. This was found atop the remotest of summits in the Clanton Hills.
I have been to places in the desert that bring to mind a possible death, but all I knew for certain was the curious name without any details. Deadman Gap; Charlie Died Well; Cemetery Ridge; Suicide Valley; Skeleton Mesa; Dead Mexican Creek; Slaughter Mountain; Canyon del Muerto; Skull Canyon.
One of my favorite parts of the state is the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. There are many small villages there, each with its own graveyard. It was obvious that, as a people, they highly respect their dead. It is their custom each year on November 1, the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, to go to every burial place on their nation and tidy up the graves. Many of these are in remote places where the village no longer has any inhabitants and has become a ghost village. For example, here is the cemetery for what once was the settlement of Chiapuk. I counted 72 graves, but the village has been abandoned these many years – it never had more than 10 houses.
In another remote corner of the reservation sits this tiny cemetery, the resting place of a dozen souls. It is hard by the site of what used to be Siovi Shuatak, abandoned for a great many years. In August of 2005, I almost died from heat fatigue while climbing on a 106-degree day near here, and was glad I didn’t end up being the newest occupant of this graveyard.
None of the graves in the previous 2 photos were marked and yet, every year, descendants of those buried there come out to tidy things up.
There’s another hamlet called Comobabi, which boasts 18 homes but, sadly, only 8 residents these days. There is an old graveyard up the hill, but it is being reclaimed by the desert. A newer graveyard sits on the eastern edge of the village, and it has 120 graves. Many of them are well-marked with modern stones. Can you imagine how many years it must have taken such a tiny hamlet to populate such a large cemetery?
Sitting only 4 miles from the Mexican border is a lonely graveyard near a peak called Nachi Kulik. The graves are well-tended, but this place is nowhere near any village, past or present. It’s a mystery why it sits where it does, alone out in the desert. I counted about 40 graves, and couldn’t help but wonder where these people had lived before being buried here.
Some had modern headstones like this one.
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