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American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
Internet Presentation
Version 112512
Morenci, AZ
Historic Old Pioneer Catholic Cemetery
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Shaded
area is approximate boundary area of the Old Morenci Catholic Cemetery Created by: Neal Du Shane |
For several years
APCRP has known of this historic Cemetery but we have never had the opportunity
to physically research it in the field. On November 15, 2012 we finally had the
opportunity to stop and walk some of the cemetery. Much to our surprise it was
much larger than we had anticipated from a geographic and interment standpoint.
Many more graves are still visible and some are still being visited on a
regular bases based on the attention they are getting. For the most part the
graves are of Hispanic decent so logically one can assume Catholic by religion.
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In total, APCRP
estimates the cemetery encompasses approximately nine acres. The vast majority
of the grave sites are below the road that runs through it up on the hill side.
It was observed by APCRP researchers on many of the graves the head was at
ground level but the foot of the grave was built up and out of the ground by
some four or five feet to maintain a level grave. The hill side is approximately
thirty-six percent grade, more in some locations less in others. Getting the
deceased to the grave site would have been a challenge, either going up or down,
left or right, to the grave site. There appears to be no logical pattern for
the grave configuration, it appears they are placed where there was room on the
hill side.
Only extremely few
small paths were found to traverse between the grave sites. No steps to gain
access going up or down between the graves. Not being able to layout and
document the graves APCRP estimates with this size of the total square footage,
it is possible there is room for some 4,683 graves in this given area. APCRP
speculates there are 800 to 1,000 graves visible and many more unmarked graves
could be interred here.
The Old Catholic
Cemetery can be reached today by going north on the Coronado Trail (Highway
191). The old Catholic Cemetery is all that remains of old Morenci. The rest of
the town was either blasted away in the expansion of the open pit mine, or has
been buried under mine waste. In 1983, Tony Enrico, a field surveyor for Phelps
Dodge, said the cemetery would not be disturbed because "the surface
indications show there is no mineralization of value there." Some burials
go back to 1881, but no one has been recorded as being buried there since the 1945. The
cemetery was about one and a quarter miles from old Morenci, and since there
were no roads to it, you'd see 50 to 60 men lined up behind a coffin, taking
turns carrying it to the cemetery and its final resting place.
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Most, if not all, of
the graves were blasted with black powder. "They'd blast a hole, and lay a
template over it in the shape of the coffin to see if the box would go down
without getting stuck."
Many babies were
claimed During the years of World War I, with an
influenza epidemic. Unofficially, families would take the small victims to the
cemetery at night and bury them in shallow graves next to the narrow spaces
near their next of kin. If any type of marker was placed at the grave it is
unlikely the marker exists today.
Another cemetery was
located in old Morenci next to the Arizona Central underground mineshaft. If
someone died in the mine, he'd be brought out and placed in coffins stored
there. There was a window in the coffin box. No records exist that embalming
was done. The family would be called and they would stand the coffin up to have
their last picture taken with the deceased. Then they'd bury them within a few
hours.
A local Urban Legend
has it that this created a problem at one time. The tale has it that two men
were courting the same girl and she married yet a third person. One of the jilted
lovers committed suicide and his family wanted his former girlfriend, now
married, to have her and the other jilted suitor's pictures taken with the
deceased. They stood the coffin up on a chair, but before the photograph could
be taken, a big wind came along and knocked the coffin off the chair. After
that, the superstition grew that the suicide victim would never rest until the
other jilted suitor was dead.
American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
Internet Presentation
Version 112512
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used
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American Pioneer &
Cemetery Research Project (APCRP).
HOME | BOOSTER | CEMETERIES | EDUCATION | GHOST TOWNS | HEADSTONE
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