Keystone Cemetery
Photo added by Leone Hanson Sigurdson

Keystone Cemetery

Also known as Mountain View Cemetery

Keystone, Pennington County, South Dakota, USA

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  • Get directions Cemetery Road
    Keystone, South Dakota 57751 United States
    Coordinates: 43.88360, -103.41470
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The Mountain View Cemetery in Keystone is the only cemetery in the world with a view of Mount Rushmore. The original land was part of the Harney National Forest and was originally deeded to the Modern Woodman of America, a fraternal lodge and was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, whose likeness looks down on the cemetery. Patrick F. Hayes, a member of the Modern Woodmen of American, physically laid out the cemetery in 1900. The first remains interred in the cemetery were Catherine Hayes, an 18 month old daughter of Patrick Hayes. It was not coincidental that Catherine's body be buried here at that time. Her body was exhumed from the Harney Cemetery, three miles downstream. The Harney Cemetery was abandoned the very same year. The boundaries of the cemetery are in the shape of a lopsided truncated diamond very similar to the old time wooden caskets. This configuration happened by change and determined by the natural terrain. The old time caskets or coffins were symmetrical.
Local historians have a field day with the cemetery.
The Mountain View Cemetery in Keystone is the only cemetery in the world with a view of Mount Rushmore. The original land was part of the Harney National Forest and was originally deeded to the Modern Woodman of America, a fraternal lodge and was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, whose likeness looks down on the cemetery. Patrick F. Hayes, a member of the Modern Woodmen of American, physically laid out the cemetery in 1900. The first remains interred in the cemetery were Catherine Hayes, an 18 month old daughter of Patrick Hayes. It was not coincidental that Catherine's body be buried here at that time. Her body was exhumed from the Harney Cemetery, three miles downstream. The Harney Cemetery was abandoned the very same year. The boundaries of the cemetery are in the shape of a lopsided truncated diamond very similar to the old time wooden caskets. This configuration happened by change and determined by the natural terrain. The old time caskets or coffins were symmetrical.
Local historians have a field day with the cemetery.

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  • Added: 1 Jan 2000
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 97167