Cementerio Lindo Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Related Web Page
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This ten-acre paupers’ burial ground opened in 1890, and by 1951, more than five thousand early Phoenix residents were buried here. Cementerio Lindo (also known as the Salt River Cemetery) was the first cemetery in Maricopa County, interring tuberculosis patients, indigents, children and "just plain folk."
A 1943 survey shows that there were 1,339 markers at that time. One of the oldest known headstones carried birth and death dates of 1868-1913. That headstone has since disappeared and new burials stopped in 1951.
Photographs show that until the mid-1990s, the cemetery had trees and grass. However, when the irrigation system failed, the appearance of the cemetery began to deteriorate. The trees died, and runoff from the adjacent freeway buried some of the flat headstones under several inches of mud. Nevertheless, the dead have not been forgotten. Bouquets of flowers continue to appear year after year on the graves that were still identifiable.
While the total number of graves is unknown due to a fire in 1951 that burned most of the County records, it is thought that there may have been over five thousand burials at this location. Although the original records have been lost, death certificates for the vast majority of people interred here are available online.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Lbh qba'g arrq gb ragre gur przrgrel.