Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainPioneer Burial Ground on the Kiowa Creek Prairie
Hammon, OK
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit
Access
Limited Access
Grass and uneven ground, rural cemetery
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1899 · Oklahoma Land Run Era · Pioneer Settlement · Roger Mills County History
Kiowa Cemetery was founded in March 1899 on the George and Nancy Lacey homestead, three miles south and three miles west of Hammon in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma. The Lacey homestead occupied the southeast corner of Section 21, Township 13 North, Range 21 West of the Indian Meridian, with the cemetery plot positioned at that corner between the Big and Little Kiowa Creeks — drainages from which both the cemetery and the surrounding community take their name.
Local accounts record that George Lacey, in poor health, had been considering the donation of part of his homestead for community burial for some time before the immediate need arose. The death of one-month-old Tommy Hill in March 1899 prompted the formal designation. Four people were buried in the cemetery's inaugural year: Tommy Hill, George Lacey himself (who died at age forty-five the same year), Cal Rowland, and Charley Eakins.
From its founding the cemetery accommodated any denomination and was operated free of charge — a policy that continues today under a maintaining trust fund. The community briefly operated under the post-office name 'Larned' between 1902 and 1906, after a post office of that name located in Section 28 directly across from the cemetery; the cemetery itself, however, has always been called Kiowa.
Many of the earliest residents buried here were born in 1850 or before, arriving in western Oklahoma during the Oklahoma Land Run period from Texas and other southern and midwestern states. Roger Mills County, organized as part of Oklahoma Territory in 1892, sits in the high plains of western Oklahoma adjacent to the Texas Panhandle on land with deep Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne history that predates Euro-American settlement by centuries.
Sources
The cemetery sits at a historical intersection — land that was Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne territory within the living memory of the homesteaders whose graves form the cemetery's oldest section. That layered context informs the local tradition attached to the site.
The most consistently repeated account describes a figure appearing near the entrance gates: a man in traditional dress, mounted on horseback, visible to those approaching but absent on closer inspection. Whether this account reflects the regional history of Indigenous displacement or simply the tendency of isolated rural cemeteries to accumulate folklore is a question the available record does not resolve.
More broadly, residents of the Hammon area have described figures observed moving through open land at night and occasionally during daylight, between the creek drainages and across the cemetery grounds. These reports are diffuse rather than tied to specific incidents within the cemetery itself. Independent investigation of the site has not been documented in available paranormal-research sources, and the accounts remain in the regional oral tradition.
The cemetery's setting — flanked by two creeks, surrounded by working pasture, more than a century of pioneer headstones — contributes to its reputation regardless of which specific account is being repeated.
Explore the grounds of this rural pioneer cemetery established in 1899, flanked by the Big and Little Kiowa Creeks. The cemetery's modest headstones record frontier families who settled Roger Mills County in the Oklahoma Land Run era, including some markers dating to the earliest years of organized settlement.
Some links on this page may earn HauntBound a small commission when you book, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial picks are independent. Full disclosure
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Free Guide
9 verified stops, rated for families, mapped in order. Free.
One email to confirm, then the guide link. Unsubscribe anytime.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPHemlock, MI
Richland Lutheran Cemetery is located in Richfield Township, Saginaw County, on Dice Road approximately a quarter mile east of Hemlock Road. The cemetery records 953 burials and dates to the 19th century. The broader Dice Road corridor gained regional notoriety in the 1970s through documented paranormal investigation of a nearby farmhouse.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPBelvidere, IL
Bloods Point Cemetery was established in 1836 in Flora Township, Boone County, taking its name from Arthur Blood, an 1830s settler and the first European-American resident of the region. The cemetery serves as a burial ground for over two centuries of local residents.
Los Angeles, CA
Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a 62-acre cemetery at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, California, founded in 1899 as Hollywood Cemetery on a 100-acre tract of former farmland. Paramount Pictures' studios occupy 40 acres of the original cemetery property. The cemetery was renamed Hollywood Memorial Park in 1939 and Hollywood Forever in 1998 after a 1990s bankruptcy and revival. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.