After Nearly 90 Years, Grand Canyon Cemetery Is Full

A historic cemetery that's been at Arizona's best-known natural wonder for almost a century has run out of space for new burial plots.

But Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery will continue burials for people who have a spouse or immediate family member already interred there, Grand Canyon National Park officials said in a news release last week. The cemetery, which has nearly 400 individual graves, will remain open to public visitation, the park said.

The cemetery is located next to Shrine of the Ages on the South Rim, about halfway between El Tovar and Yavapai Point. The park headquarters and Yavapai Lodge are nearby.

Some of the graves at the cemetery predate its official dedication, which came in 1928. Among those buried there are legendary Canyon photographers Emery and Ellsworth Kolb; members of the Verkamp family, who owned the first curio shop at the South Rim; and John Hance, one of the Canyon's first residents.

Also interred there are the unidentified remains of the United Airlines passengers and crew who died in a 1956 plane collision over the Canyon (the remains of those in the other craft, a TWA plane, are buried in Flagstaff).

According to the park's website, to qualify for burial at the cemetery, a person "must have lived at Grand Canyon for no less than three years or must have made a significant and substantial contribution to the development of, public knowledge about, understanding of or appreciation for Grand Canyon National Park."