SETTLEMENT CEMETERY, Bonner county, Idaho


"Old Priest River Cemetery" is located near Priest River.  It is an abandoned 
cemetery on the bluff north east of the old Louisiana Pacific Mill site.  
It is situated under the Bonneville Power Company power lines above the gravel 
pit used by the Bonner County Sheriff's Department as a firearms range  
There may be approximately twenty burials there but records are not available.   
It is believed that the cemetery was above the original town site of 
Priest River in the late 1800's.  This burial site is located on private 
property and should not be accessed without prior owner approval.  It is 
also said it may have been a burial site for the local (Kalispell) Indians.

Per Marilyn Cork, a local historian of the Priest River area, this Cemetery 
there are at least five burials that she had been told about.  Three are of 
a family of children that died of an illness.  One is a man that was an employee 
of the USFS.  One tombstone is still visible and bore the date of 1904.  

Per Mr. and Mrs. Veltri there were approximately 5 graves at the location.  
They also advised that to their knowledge no native Americans were buried 
there.  Mrs. Velti remembered putting flowers on the graves while she was 
growing up.

A local archeologist visited the site and took pictures of the remaining stone.  
The archeologist also noted that the stone was on it's concrete base.  Several 
depressions in the ground were noted as well as what appeared to be seven to 
eight  bases for tombstones that had fallen or been pushed into a nearby ravine.

The stone from the pictures shows:

Peter Graray		Age 46		09-18-1901

An obituary was found in the Kootenai County Republican dated 09-27-1901 saying 
Peter Gregoire, a West Branch Rancher, was run over and instantly killed by a 
freight train on the Great Northern bridge a short distance east of Priest River 
last Friday night.  However, it does not give a burial place.

>From the Beautiful Bonner Vol I book:  1896 Alice and Bertha Carr died in 
another diphtheria epidemic.  They are buried in the Priest River's original 
cemetery, which is located on the Keyser property east of town.  (Mary L. Will)

Due to the possible desecration of this pioneer cemetery all the information 
gathered by the archeologist was turned over to the State of Idaho for further
action.


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This file was submitted by Mary Garrison, PO Box 482, Hayden, ID 83835