Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery
# Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery

Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery, also known as Pioneer Cemetery, is a historic cemetery located near the Grand Canyon's South Rim. It is also known as South Rim Cemetery and the American Legion Cemetery due to its association with the veterans' organization.

The cemetery is home to some 400 individual graves. The cemetery closed to new burials in 2017, but remains open for visitation.

Burial criteria include a three-year stint at the Park, and a significant contribution thereto. Among those buried there are pioneers, NPS administrators of Grand Canyon National Park and residents of Grand Canyon Village including John Hance (1840–1919) early white settler and Grand Canyon $guide,^{:23–27}$ Pete Berry, Ralph H. Cameron (1863–1953) American businessman, prospector, and $politician^{:33–37}$ William Wallace Bass, members of the Kolb Family (Ellwworth and Emery), who established the Kolb $Studio,^{:39–49}$ and M.R. Tillotson. Hance is the first to have been buried there. Also buried in the cemetery are the unidentified remains of the victims on the United Airlines flight involved in the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision, with a cenotaph of 31 $names.^{:59–62}$

Other noteworthy burials include:

* William J. Breed (1928–2013) geologist and expert on the Grand $Canyon^{:80}$
* David White (1862–1935) who studied the Grand $Canyon^{:77–78}$
* Gunnar Widforss (1879–1934) Swedish-American $painter.^{:91–92}$
