City Cemetery
1884

The first child born in Park City was also the first child to die here. George and Rhoda Snyder, who are credited with christening the town Park City, operated a boarding house here when the area was just a mining camp. When their infant daughter Pearl succumbed during a heavy snowstorm, attempts to take her to Salt Lake City for burial were thwarted by snow drifts. Thus she was buried on this property owned by the Snyders, who donated the 40 acre parcel to the City in 1879 to be used as a cemetery.

In March, 1881 the Park Record newspaper sponsored a dance to raise funds for a picket fence to surround the cemetery. The handsome wrought iron fence with stone pilasters was erected in 1983.

Although several Chinese were buried here, all were exhumed to be shipped to China for reburial, as was the Chinese custom.

Early tombstones indicate an unusually high number of young children’s graves, testifying to the ravaging effects of disease, severe winters, and hardships of life in early Park City.

The text above is from a plaque at the entrance to the the Park City City Cemetery presented by the Park City Centennial Commission in 1984.