Pioneer and Military Memorial Park, United States historic place in Phoenix, Arizona
Pioneer and Military Memorial Park is a complex of seven historic cemeteries in Phoenix, Arizona, that was converted into a park in the late 1980s. The site contains about 3,700 graves, of which only a few hundred have headstones, and includes a Victorian house built in 1897 that now serves as an information center and displays artifacts from the city's early history.
The cemeteries were founded starting in 1884 after authorities closed an old burial ground near the train station. The graves of pioneers such as John T. Alsap, the first mayor, and Phillip Duppa, who named Phoenix, along with soldiers from the Civil War and other conflicts, document the city's development over more than a century.
The park emerged when graves were moved from a burial ground near the train station to this location in the 1880s to make room for the expanding city. The headstones and monuments reflect the different groups who shaped Phoenix, from early settlers to soldiers who served in various wars.
The park is open year-round and staffed mainly by volunteers who regularly offer walks and guided tours. Visitors can stroll along paved paths and read informational signs, with early mornings or late afternoons being the quietest times to visit.
The park was built on land formerly inhabited by the Hohokam civilization, a pre-Columbian community whose connection to the site underscores the long continuity of human settlement at this location. While many visitors know the graves of prominent founders, the majority of the roughly 3,700 burial sites marked only with simple or no markers often go unnoticed, even though they tell equally important stories from the everyday lives of early settlers.
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