Bearcreek Cemetery - Bearcreek, Montana - Worldwide Cemeteries on Waymarking.com

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Bearcreek Cemetery - Bearcreek, Montana

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Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 646247 N 5002205

A mile east of the little village of Bearcreek on Highway 308, the Bearcreek Cemetery is the resting place of many of the victims of Montana's worst coal mining disaster.

The Smith Mine was the site of the worst coal mine disaster in Montana's history when 74 miners were killed by a methane gas explosion and poison gas created by the explosion. The explosion occurred on the morning of February 27, 1943, killing many miners instantly, the remainder over the next several hours, succumbing to methane and carbon monoxide gas which filled the mine. In all 74 miners died, as well as one rescuer who, suffering from the effects of his efforts, died April 9. This brought the total mortality number to 75.

The disaster spelled the end for the Smith Creek Mine, which never reopened, and essentially the end for Bearcreek. Even before the explosion the town had been mostly dismantled and many of its buildings hauled to Bridger, Belfry and Red Lodge. The fortunes of coal mining in Montana had, since the end of World War I been on the downswing, except for those of larger strip mines in eastern Montana. If the 1943 explosion had not occurred, the days of the mine, then the last of four large mines in the Bearcreek area, were probably limited in any event. Most of those who still resided in Bearcreek by 1943 left for greener pastures, leaving just a handful of people and buildings. The village today, though far from thriving, refuses to die.

In total, as of 2011, there were 473 burials in the cemetery, 22 of which were Smith Mine Disaster victims. Three hundred seventeen of the 473 are marked, leaving 156 unmarked graves in the cemetery. As of 2017, Find A Grave lists 483 interments. The earliest marked burial, that of Helen Markovich, who died at the age of six, took place in 1909, the year of the cemetery's establishment. It remains in use today.

In the cemetery is a red granite cenotaph which honors the victims of the Smith Mine Disaster. Erected in 1947 by the United Mine Workers of America, it was dedicated on 30 May 1947 and contains the names of each of the 75 victims.

Bearcreek Cemetery

In June 1909, Bearcreek founders George and Lodenia Lamport and Robert and Ella Leavens conveyed four acres to the City of Bearcreek for use as a local cemetery on a hillside about one mile east of the town. Red Lodge City Surveyor Fred Mine surveyed the site of the cemetery. Mine designed the cemetery to include a circular pathway traversed by roads entering the cemetery from the north, south, east and west and intersecting in the center of the burial ground. The cemetery consisted of 204 burial plots.

Smith Mine Disaster Monument
This monument honors victims of the Smith Mine Disaster that occurred on February 27, 1943. The monument is located about 420 feet south of the cemetery's main gate. It is oriented east and west and faces north. The monument base is concrete and stepped; it measures 10 feet x 3 feet. It is encircled by a low concrete retaining wall that is currently filled with scoria. The retaining wall is 20 feet x 9 feet and raised about two feet on the south. A polished red granite cenotaph is centrally located on the concrete base and measures 6.5 feet x 1 foot and is 4 feet in height. The names of each victim of the mine disaster (including those buried in the Red Lodge Cemetery and elsewhere) are etched in vertical columns on the north face of the monument. "SMITH MINE DISASTER" and "February 27, 1943" are etched into the granite along the top of the monument The monument was dedicated on May 30, 1947.
From the NRHP Registration Form

BEARCREEK CEMETERY
A large red granite monument commemorates the 75 miners who died in the 1943 explosion at the Smith Mine. The United Mine Workers of America installed this memorial in 1947 to memorialize Montana’s worst coal mining disaster.

Twenty-two of the Smith Mine’s victims are buried here in family plots. The death date—February 27, 1943—carved onto their grave markers recalls the tragedy. Other headstones express other, individual losses.

Of the 473 people buried here, 107 are children, including the first person interred in the cemetery in 1909, six-year-old Helen Markovich. Marble tombstones decorated with carved lambs and other tokens of innocence mark many of the children’s graves. They communicate parents’ great grief, while also suggesting the toll poverty, infant mortality, and childhood diseases historically took on families.

Grouped in the cemetery’s southeastern corner are headstones marked with Cyrillic lettering, many displaying photographs, burned into porcelain to produce a permanent image of the deceased. These markers reflect the Eastern European roots of many Bearcreek miners and their families. At the community’s height, in 1920, a third of its residents were immigrants while another third were the children of immigrants. Headstones marked with Croatian, Montenegrin, Slavic, Italian, Scottish, German, Finnish, French, and English surnames attest to Bearcreek’s ethnic diversity.

After the Smith Mine disaster, Bearcreek became a near ghost town as many residents departed, fleeing bad memories. They left behind this simple rural cemetery, whose sandstone, granite, and marble headstones provide mute testimony to Bearcreek’s coal mining heritage and to the people buried here. 
From the NRHP plaque at the cemetery