Fillmore City Cemetery, 325 East 600 South, Fillmore, Millard County, UT

Significance: The Fillmore City Cemetery is significant at a local level as an active burial ground that links the city to its founders and its founding as Utah's territorial capital in 1851. The signature grid layout and use of local sandstone that distinguish the cemetery were established in the first phase of development and carried through the expansion and beautification phases in some form.

The cemetery was established at a time when construction of the Territorial Statehouse was underway and early sessions of the Territorial Legislature were held in Fillmore. It is the only cemetery in Fillmore, and is therefore the final resting place of a number of the city's founders and early leaders. Other burials in the cemetery are linked to several controversial events in the early history of Fillmore. The cemetery contains the graves of Captain John Gunnison, who was killed in the Gunnison Massacre, and of 14-year-old Proctor Robison whose death was cited as a catalyst for the Mountain Meadows Massacre by rumors of a spring supposedly poisoned by members of the Fancher Wagon Train.

The Fillmore City Cemetery is significant as a typical Mormon colonial cemetery from the early period of settlement in Utah as well as for the variety and craftsmanship in headstone design. The location of the cemetery beyond the original town center, cardinal grid layout, and plantings of lawns and evergreen trees is consistent with that of early cemeteries in thirty-five other Mormon villages settled between 1847 and 1851 that were examined for comparison. The design and development of these cemeteries reflect the adoption of cemetery design trends of Western Europe and the U.S. from the mid-nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century, and their adaptation and simplification by Mormon colonists living in a high desert environment with scarce resources. The Fillmore City Cemetery is a vernacular landscape that was expanded as more burial plots were needed in an orderly manner following its initial cardinal grid layout. Individual graves are oriented east-west according to Christian custom. They are simple plots of grass marked only by headstones, with no curbing, fencing or tombs. A few larger monuments mark the graves of more prominent citizens. The earliest gravestones of local sandstone showcase the skill of local stone masons who worked on the Territorial Statehouse. Marble and granite headstones adorn later graves. Landscape plantings are simple, consisting of lawns, evergreen trees (primarily along roads), scattered deciduous trees, and a few shrubs. The Fillmore City Cemetery retains a high degree of integrity, making it an excellent example of an early cemetery in a Plat of Zion Mormon colonial village.
Survey number: HALS UT-3
Building/structure dates: ca. 1851 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: ca. 1906 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1913 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1926 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1932 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1936- ca. 1937 Subsequent Work