Pioneer & Military Memorial Park 275/365

Many of the city's founding fathers are buried in this memorial park near the Arizona State Capitol.  Although it is called the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park, it is actually seven separate cemeteries on an 11-acre parcel of land.    After Phoenix was incorporated as a city in 1881, the populace became ashamed of the old cemetery right in the downtown area of a new growing city, and various fraternal groups bought a plot of land somewhat west of downtown to establish their cemeteries and then sold half of it to others for use as the City (aka Loosely) Cemetery.  Families moved their dead from the old cemetery, most of them to these cemeteries.  Burials continued in the "new" cemeteries until 1914 but after the opening of a beautiful new Greenwood Cemetery even further west, the city declared the cemeteries abandoned and closed them.

In the center of the photograph you can see, looking west,  the copper dome and the Winged Victory of the Arizona State Capitol Building.  The truck with the red material is probably working on construction (which typically happens on weekends) for Arizona's Centennial which will take place February 14, 1912.

For other photos of this historic cemetery, CLICK HERE.