A Little History Of Whitewater Cemetery.

The Historic Whitewater Cemetery is located on an adobe hill southwest of the town of Whitewater. It is the American Flag and some of the graves that can be seen from U.S. Highway 50, a little south of Whitewater. This original forty acres was officially presented to the community on October 21, 1909 under a land patent signed by President William H. Taft. Later is was noted that several graves lay outside the boundaries of this parcel and Keith Clark was instrumental in obtaining an additional ten acres from Mesa County in 1990.

Records indicate the first burial was of a young woman named Susan Rebecca White, aged thirty seven, eight months and seven days on March 8, 1888. She was the wife of Joshua Reason White, a Union Soldier. We are honored to have a special monument donated by local Vietnam Veterans. You will notice their beautiful monument and rock work near the flag pole. Many others were laid to rest nearby and the cemetery is now the final resting place of approximately one hundred and fifty people- young and old, recent and far back in time. There are 13 veterans who have found their final resting place at this cemetery, four from the Civil War. There are old worn headstones, homemade wooden crosses, hand carved local limestone, a child’s toys as well as new marble stones, a stone bench and more. Some of the graves have no marker. Over the earlier years, the records were not kept intact and some families moved their loved ones to another place. Time and weather, as well as some unfortunate vandalism, have taken their toll on the markers that remain.

Although the cemetery was originally incorporated under the State of Colorado, it subsequently fell apart in the 1940s because of lack of interest to run the organization. It was reactivated in the 1980s and on September 5, 1989, was reorganized as a nonprofit corporation with and all volunteer board and staff. During the summer of 2018, Boy Scout Troop 388, did a wonderful job of restoring and preserving the oldest of the wooden grave sites. Today the cemetery is still active with 0 to 3 burials per year.