Lewis and Clark County Heritage Tourism Council – Silver City Cemetery

Silver City Cemetery is about 13 miles Northwest of Helena and is owned by Lewis and Clark County. For years, the cemetery, located on private land, was maintained by the descendants of the deceased. It was transferred to the County around 2001.

The first grave in the cemetery dates to 1864. This project restored two wooden grave fences that were rotted beyond repair. This cemetery was at a critical point and without preservation projects, would lose its historic integrity.

Some of those buried in the cemetery include: Civil War soldiers; a Mexican settler; generations of the family of “Bill Brown”, aka Wilhelm Anderson, a Swede who jumped ship in San Francisco, traveled to Silver City, found gold, and sold a claim to Thomas Cruse, who later struck it rich; Mrs. Silver, allegedly the first person buried in the cemetery (1864) and for whom Silver was purportedly named; a German man, one of the first settlers in the valley, who was married to a Blackfeet woman; a young child related to one of Montana’s U.S. Representatives; John Stemple’s daughter (of Stemple Pass); and Norwegians who settled what we know as Sleeping Giant.