Carbon Cemetery
a.k.a. 48CR1927
County Road 115, Carbon, WYRecognizing the importance of Carbon Cemetery in the history of Carbon and early Wyoming, this site is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places on the local level. Carbon was the first coal camp to be established in Wyoming, and the cemetery is among the first formal burial grounds established in the state. The town of Carbon grew along with the mines and reached its peak population around 1890. Over the following decade, the mines began to be depleted and the railroad diverted its main line a distance to the north as the Hanna coalfield to the northwest came under production. In 1902, the last of the mines were closed and Carbon was soon reduced to a depopulated ghost town. Many of the town's buildings were moved over the following decades, both to Hanna and area ranches, leaving behind numerous stone foundations and the cemetery.
The cemetery is the most intact surviving feature of the formerly bustling community and is nominated with clear, justifiable boundaries and owner consent (no consent has been provided for the townsite). Because the cemetery remained in use throughout the early decades of the 20" century by persons associated with the former mining town, the site's period of significance extends from 1868 to 1940. The site has changed little since the period of significance ended, and exhibits a high level of integrity, as discussed on the previous page.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.