Fort Klamath Historic Cemetery, Fort Klamath, Oregon

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Fort Klamath, Oregon
Surnames/tags: Fort_Klamath Cemeteries Oregon

Contents 1 Fort Klamath Historic Cemetery 1.1 Cemetery Information 1.2 Additional Information 2 Sources

Fort Klamath Historic Cemetery

Map of Fort Klamath cemeteries.

The first cemetery of Fort Klamath, Oregon was originally established on December 15, 1863, upon the death of Private McKenzie Packard, the first person to perish after the establishment of the outpost.^[1] The cemetery site, known informally in documents as the first post cemetery, was chosen for the proximity to the post hospital and by May 1866 the 8ft by 4ft site had three graves. In June of 1873 the site had expanded to hold about 15 graves, and within the next year or so around twenty-three burials were reinterred from the first post cemetery to the Second Post Cemetery.

Following the Modoc War in the late 1870s, several burials were added to this second post cemetery and headstones were ordered for forty-eight burials in 1886. The town of Fort Klamath was established around 1885 and began using the area next to the Second Post Cemetery as their burial ground, as well. By 1890, the fort at Fort Klamath was officially closed and Company I of the 14th Infantry Regiment was relocated to Fort Vancouver. The stewardship of the cemetery began to fall at this time, and in the spring of 1892 a resident of Fort Klamath, Oregon wrote to their representative asking for repairs and maintenance. Due to the construction of the national cemetery in San Francisco, these funds were not sent as many burials were scheduled for reinternment to this new cemetery.

In late summer and early autumn of 1892, disinterment was completed with fifty-six bodies first shipped to Ashland, Oregon where they would continue to San Francisco via train.

Locating the original burial site was done by modern researchers, Kevin Fields and Bill Johnson, from the Klamath County Historical Society in October 2013. Using old photographs and modern location scouting to locate an area just northeast of the known hospital site which matched an 1866 description, they were able to confidently locate the area of the first post cemetery.

The Fort Klamath Historic Cemetery has several gravesites dating from the 1880s and 1890s with burials continuing keeping the cemetery active.

Cemetery Information

Cemetery Name: Fort Klamath Historic Cemetery
Cemetery Address: Near junction of Hwy 62 and Sun Mountain Road, Fort Klamath, Oregon
Cemetery Coordinates: 42.697039, -121.976540

Additional Information

This page is part of the Oregon Cemeteries Project

See the Fort Klamath Historic Cemetery category for a listing of people buried in this cemetery.

Sources

1. ↑ United States, Burial Registers for Military Posts, Camps, and Stations,1768-1921

• Johnson, Bill. "Disposition of Fort Klamath Soldiers’ Remains." Klamath County Historical Society Trumpeter, Winter 2013: 2-6. Accessed May 29, 2019. PDF.
• "United States, Burial Registers for Military Posts, Camps, and Stations,1768-1921," database with images, (FamilySearch : 16 March 2018), Makinza Packard, 15 Dec 1863; citing Death, Fort Klamath, Oregon, United States, Volume One, p. 136, line 1, Burial Registers for Military Posts, Camps, and Stations, 1768-1921, NARA microfilm publication M2014 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1; FHL microfilm 2,155,570.