Fort Boise Military Reserve Cemetery

The first burial at the original location of Fort Boise Military Reserve Cemetery took place in 1863, the same year that the Military Reserve (then known as the Boise Barracks) was opened. Over the course of the next forty-three years, burials at the cemetery included veterans of the Civil War, Mexican War, Indian Wars, and Spanish-American Wars. Many members of military families who lived on the Reserve were also buried here, along with some men and women who died while travelling West on the Oregon Trail.

Then in 1906, a flash flood from the nearby Cottonwood Creek caused extensive damage to the cemetery, sweeping away many wooden markers and eroding the gravesites badly. Officers at the Boise Barracks contracted workers to relocate the graves to a plot of land on higher ground. Although it was supposed to take only one year, the project ended up stretching on for three years due to the number of unidentified gravesites. By the end, 166 burials had been interred and reburied in a plot half a mile down the road.

The Boise Barracks closed in 1913 and new burials at the cemetery ceased, with a little over 200 graves taking up only about 1/5th of the space of the plot. During World War II, Fort Boise Military Reserve Cemetery lost its funding and was no longer able to keep up much-needed maintenance. In 1947, the Veterans Administration deeded the cemetery to the City of Boise for historic preservation purposes.

During the late-20th century, the cemetery fell prey to vandalism and disrepair. In the 1990's, the Idaho Civil War Volunteers became involved in restoring and preserving the cemetery. Meanwhile, three more burials were found in the cemetery's original plot during an excavation in 1998. Presumed to be Civil War veterans, the three were given a Memorial Day burial ceremony in accordance with 1863 protocol for fallen military personnel, bringing the number of gravesites at Fort Boise Military Reserve Cemetery to 252.

City of Boise. Fort Boise Military Reserve Cemetery, City of Boise. Accessed November 1st 2020. https://www.cityofboise.org/departments/parks-and-recreation/cemeteries/fort-boise-military-reserve-cemetery/.

Curtright, Emerson. You Won’t Want To Visit This Notorious Idaho Cemetery Alone Or After Dark, Only in Your State. February 19th 2019. Accessed October 13th 2020. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/idaho/haunted-cemetery-id/.

Webby, Anna. 150 Boise icons: Fort Boise Military Reserve Cemetery, Idaho Statesman. May 26th 2013. Accessed October 13th 2020. https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/special-reports/article40741188.html.