Explore the Eerie Island Cemetery of a Sunken Montana Town

Have you ever been to a "Boot Hill" before? There are a couple that still exist in Montana today. They are simply old west cemeteries where people were buried with their boots as grave markers.

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I visited Boot Hill in Billings a few times. It is an eerie feeling reading some gravestones. Seeing how violent and deadly life was. With headstones reading "Died 1892 Result of a gunshot wound." Billings was just a small town on the railroad at the time.

Further west there was a thriving town along the Misosuri River that also had a "Boot Hill" cemetery. The town of Canton resembled "Walnut Grove" from "Little House on the Prarie." The town built St. Joseph's Church, which is Montana's 7th oldest church. The town was built far enough upstream that the dam that was built on the Missouri River didn't affect the town. That was until a much larger dam was built in the 1950s. Soon the valley south of Helena flooded and created Canyon Ferry Reservoir.

The residents of Canton abandoned their homes and headed to higher ground. However, they couldn't stand the thought of losing their church to the flood. They moved St. Joseph Church before the water claimed it.

The original cemetery was built on a high hill so that a potential flood would never wash away the deceased. It worked as planned! That cemetery is now an island in the middle of Canyon Ferry Reservoir.

According to Atlas Obscura

Cemetery Island contains graves that date from the late 1800s to 2000. New burials are no longer allowed, but visitors can explore the small island, which is filled with dramatic rock formations and small beaches. Iron fences, crooked tombstones, and dramatic lake views combine for an atmosphere that would be the perfect setting for a horror film or Scooby Doo episode.

 

You can visit Cemetary Island by boat. Next time you head out on a fishing trip, stop by and pay your respects to the ghosts of the underwater ghost town.