Common Burial Ground at Fort Dearborn and Garrison
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Common Burial Ground at Fort Dearborn and Garrison

Also known as Fort Dearborn Cemetery

Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA

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  • Get directions N Michigan Avenue
    Chicago, Illinois 60601 United States
    Coordinates: 41.88714, -87.62500
  • This cemetery is marked as being historical or removed.
  • No longer accepting burials
  • Cemetery ID:

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Fort Dearborn Cemetery (Circa 1805-1835) was first known as the "Common Burial Ground at Fort Dearborn and Garrison Cemetery" and is considered Chicago's first cemetery. The site was not much more than sand, which shifted with the winds off Lake Michigan. It was difficult to maintain the graves and the markers at best were probably simple wooden boards or crosses. Many other graves likely went unmarked.


It was located southeast of the fort between the road leading to the fort and the west bank of the Chicago River as it flowed southward to the lake, before the northern channel was cut. On modern street grids, the cemetery would have been south and east of the intersection of Lake Street (200 north) and Wabash Avenue (50 east). It was located on what today would be the south end of the Michigan Avenue bridge at the Chicago River

(Approx. 300 N. Michigan by today's street numbering system).


Chicago and her Churches reported "The burial ground for the Garrison was on the spot where the I.C. (Illinois Central railroad station) now stands, but it was swept away by lake waters, with all its dead, before that magnificent structure was built."

Fort Dearborn Cemetery (Circa 1805-1835) was first known as the "Common Burial Ground at Fort Dearborn and Garrison Cemetery" and is considered Chicago's first cemetery. The site was not much more than sand, which shifted with the winds off Lake Michigan. It was difficult to maintain the graves and the markers at best were probably simple wooden boards or crosses. Many other graves likely went unmarked.


It was located southeast of the fort between the road leading to the fort and the west bank of the Chicago River as it flowed southward to the lake, before the northern channel was cut. On modern street grids, the cemetery would have been south and east of the intersection of Lake Street (200 north) and Wabash Avenue (50 east). It was located on what today would be the south end of the Michigan Avenue bridge at the Chicago River

(Approx. 300 N. Michigan by today's street numbering system).


Chicago and her Churches reported "The burial ground for the Garrison was on the spot where the I.C. (Illinois Central railroad station) now stands, but it was swept away by lake waters, with all its dead, before that magnificent structure was built."

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  • Added: 18 Mar 2019
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2682041