Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domain1991 Recorded Texas Historic Landmark on Highway 16: last remnant of an 1870s pioneer community whose unsettling name traces to contested frontier oral tradition.
TX-16, 9 miles N of Llano, Llano, TX 78643
Research updated June 2026
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All Ages
Cost
Free
Roadside historic cemetery; no admission fee.
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Limited Access
Rural roadside cemetery with uneven ground; no paved access path.
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Photos OK
Est. 1884 · Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (1991, Marker No. 9432) · Last remnant of the Baby Head pioneer community · Oldest confirmed burial: Jodie May McKneely, 1884
Baby Head Cemetery is located on Texas Highway 16 in Llano County, approximately nine miles north of the city of Llano. The Texas Historical Commission designated it a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1991 (Marker No. 9432). The oldest confirmed grave belongs to Jodie May McKneely, who died on New Year's Day, 1884.
The cemetery is the last standing remnant of the Baby Head community, which once occupied this part of the Hill Country. The settlement included farms, homes, and businesses that developed along the highway corridor during the 1870s. Like many small rural communities in Llano County, it eventually depopulated over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, leaving the cemetery as its most durable marker.
The community and the broader landscape — Baby Head Mountain, Baby Head Creek — share a name whose origin is documented on the state historical marker but explicitly attributed to oral tradition. Historian Goldie S. Conley's research, the basis for the marker text, places the naming event in the 1850s. Other historians, including John E. Conner and Alline Elliot, place the alleged incident closer to 1873 and supply specific names not included in the official marker. The Texas Historical Commission's decision to document the origin story while noting its traditional rather than archival basis reflects the standard practice for frontier-era narratives without contemporaneous written records.
The naming legend itself has drawn scrutiny from scholars who note that frontier stories of this type were sometimes constructed or amplified to justify hostility toward Indigenous people in the region. The cemetery, however, is a documented historic site independent of that contested narrative.
Sources
The Texas Historical Commission marker at Baby Head Cemetery acknowledges that the name originates in oral tradition rather than documented fact. According to the tradition recorded by historian Goldie S. Conley, a child was killed near Baby Head Mountain sometime in the 1850s, and the remains were left on the ridge. A variant account, attributed to historian Alline Elliot, names the child as Mary Elizabeth and her father as Bill Buster, and places the incident around 1873. Neither version has been confirmed against contemporaneous written sources.
Scholars have noted that this type of frontier naming story — attributing a location's unsettling name to violence against settlers by Indigenous people — was sometimes exaggerated or invented to justify retaliatory actions or to claim land under duress. The Texas marker documents the tradition while flagging its basis in oral history rather than record.
Despite — or because of — this ambiguity, Baby Head Cemetery appears on haunted-cemetery lists in Texas, including a 2019 roundup of eeriest Texas cemeteries, and attracts paranormal investigators. Local accounts describe a sense of unease around the site after dark, and some visitors report unexplained sounds. The cemetery's isolation along a rural highway, its overgrown sections, and the weight of its name all contribute to its reputation among ghost-hunting communities.
The fable_build_note for this venue directs that the Baby Head name-origin story be presented as unverified legend, which it is: the landmark cemetery is the venue; the origin story is contested trope-lore.
The cemetery is the last physical trace of the Baby Head community, which once supported farms, homes, and businesses along this stretch of Highway 16. The oldest confirmed grave — Jodie May McKneely, January 1, 1884 — anchors the site historically. The Texas Historical Commission marker erected in 1991 summarizes the naming tradition and acknowledges its oral-tradition basis.
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