Anchorage's oldest cemetery — set aside by President Woodrow Wilson in 1915 alongside the city's founding, where visitors and night security report whispered names and movement among the headstones.
535 East 9th Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public access during daylight hours. Cemetery Players' summer 'Stories at the Cemetery' historical reenactment tours have ticket prices set seasonally.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved drives and gentle grass paths across 22 acres; some sections uneven near older headstones
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1915 · National Register of Historic Places (1993) · Anchorage's oldest cemetery · Established by Presidential Executive Order 2242 · Burial place of Alaska's earliest civic leaders
Anchorage Memorial Park is the city's oldest cemetery, predating the formal incorporation of the town. It was set aside as a Cemetery Reserve by Executive Order 2242, signed by President Woodrow Wilson on August 31, 1915, when Anchorage was still a tent encampment serving the construction of the Alaska Railroad. The first burial of record was that of Francis Amestoy on July 6, 1915 — earlier than the executive order itself, reflecting how rapidly the new townsite needed a place to bury its dead.
The cemetery covers 22 acres divided into ten public tracts and ten private tracts. In 1979, the federal government designated the Municipality of Anchorage as the managing agency, and the cemetery was renamed to its current title. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1993. A columbarium wall containing 3,861 niches for cremated remains was dedicated on Memorial Day 2003.
Many of Alaska's most consequential figures are buried here. Leopold David, the city's first mayor, lies in the older section. So do Walter J. Hickel, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and two-term Alaska governor; Anthony J. Dimond, the territorial congressman who pushed for Alaska statehood; the Arctic survivor and explorer Ada Blackjack; landscape painter Sydney Laurence; pioneer aviator Robert Reeve; and Charley Stanford, who carried mail along the Iditarod route by dog sled. A small number of graves in the older sections are marked with upright whalebones in the traditional Iñupiat style.
The main entrance is the John Bagoy Gate at 7th Avenue and Cordova Street, named for the longtime Anchorage funeral director and local historian who documented the cemetery's residents. Each summer the Cemetery Players, a community theater troupe, perform 'Stories at the Cemetery,' a series of historical reenactments at the gravesites of selected residents. The cemetery remains the city's primary public burial ground.
Sources
Anchorage Memorial Park has a long, gentle paranormal reputation that tracks closely with the cemetery's role as one of the oldest continuously used civic spaces in the city. According to American Ghost Walks' inventory of haunted Anchorage sites, two named apparitions are associated with the grounds. The first is Arthur Johnson, said to appear among the older sections tending to his own gravesite as well as those of neighboring plots. The second is a heavyset older woman identified only as Marie, who has been described by ghost-tour participants moving between the rows of headstones.
Beyond these named figures, the most commonly reported phenomenon is auditory. Visitors leaving flowers at family graves report hearing their own names — or the names of their dead — whispered on the wind. Nighttime security staff, who do a final sweep before closing the gates, have reported movement near headstones and momentary figures along the cemetery's interior paths that resolve into nothing on investigation.
The cemetery's haunted reputation overlaps with — and is partly shaped by — the summer 'Stories at the Cemetery' historical reenactments, in which costumed actors portray Anchorage's earliest residents at their gravesites. The line between performance and lore is intentionally porous and gives the grounds the feeling of being intermittently inhabited by their dead. The Memorial Park is a regular stop on downtown ghost-walking tours.
Notable Entities
Walk the 22-acre cemetery established by Presidential Executive Order in 1915. Notable burials include Anchorage's first mayor Leopold David, Alaska Governor Walter Hickel, U.S. Congressman Anthony J. Dimond, Arctic explorer Ada Blackjack, and landscape painter Sydney Laurence. Whalebone markers in traditional Iñupiat style identify several graves in the older sections.
The Cemetery Players acting troupe stage the long-running 'Stories at the Cemetery' historical reenactment tours each summer, with actors portraying notable Anchorage residents at their gravesites. Schedule and tickets are posted seasonally by the Municipality of Anchorage Parks Department.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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