In northeastern Carbon County, Montana, Gebo Cemetery was initially the resting place of the deceased of the town of Gebo, a coal mining town which sprang into existence in 1899. While coal properties near Gebo had been proven as early as 1895 by one Sam Gebo, activity did not commence until the Northern Pacific was convinced to run a line through the Clarks Fork Valley, and a spur from Fromberg to the Gebo mine site.
With the arrival of the railroad, the town of Gebo immediately thrived, growing to a population of as much as 1,000 Geboites by the turn of the century. As was the case in all early mining towns, even coal mining towns, Gebo quickly developed a substantial and diverse commercial sector, including a drugstore, café, rooming house, confectionery, laundry, barbershop, post office, newspaper, and five bars.
And again, as was the case in nearly all mining early towns, prosperity at Gebo proved short-lived. Litigation and ownership squabbles were followed by the discovery of better grade, more accessible, coal at Bear Creek and Red Lodge, neither one very far away and both also in Carbon County. By 1906 mine workers and shop keepers were beginning to move businesses and homes to the
Town of Fromberg, just a mile away and not dependent on coal, or any other mineral, for that matter, but on agriculture. The end came in 1912 when the mine was permanently closed and the town of Gebo was abandoned, save for a few remaining houses in the town which continued to be occupied, especially during the 1930s depression. Today nary a trace of Gebo can be found.
Gebo Cemetery, however, remains in use by residents of Fromberg. Fromberg is steeped in agricultural history and the museum, centered on the old Northern Pacific depot, is one of the main attractions in town. Fromberg has a current population of around 400 residents, which has stayed consistent over the decades, peaking at ~500 in the early 1920s.
Gebo Cemetery is approximately 3.5 acres of flat, sloping prairie with the area almost covered in Sagebrush that is left natural. It does not seem the cemetery has been cared for recently. In fact, this was noted in the NRHP Registration Form "
...rows are difficult to discern, largely because of overgrowth and the presence of several unmarked graves.", written in 1993.
The first known interments date back to 1901; the first, now unmarked, interment took place in 1899, the year the cemetery was established. Gebo Cemetery has approximately 229 known interments, some with simple wooden crosses marking the graves of the unknown. As well, many older burials are unmarked. Some of the older graves do have granite headstones or handmade white crosses, seemingly for infants. Unless one walks the cemetery most of the headstones are hidden from view. Mostly the cemetery is surrounded by barbed wire fencing, though it probably was installed by adjacent ranchers. The entrance gate is old and rusty and is away from the arched sign near the road.
GEBO CEMETERY
The Gebo Cemetery is located in eastern Carbon County, Montana, and is about one mile north-northwest of Fromberg, a small rural community in the south-central portion of the state. The cemetery lies just east of the dirt county road linking Fromberg with the town of Joliet and is on a gentle slope overgrown with sagebrush, sparse grasses and thistle. This location affords a dramatic and panoramic view of the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River Valley to the east and town of Fromberg to the southeast. Steep sandstone cliffs rise to the west. The square plot includes 3.25 acres of land and is encompassed by a wire and post fence; an ornate wire gate set between tall metal trusses is on the west. A 2.09 acre plot was added to the historic cemetery in 1963, but this area has yet to be used as a burial site.
The Gebo Cemetery was established in 1899 for the coal mining town of Gebo, which was located about one-half mile to the east. At this time, the town and the Gebo mine were amidst a period of rapid development and expansion. As many as 500 to 1000 people reportedly lived in the town by the early 1900s. Prosperity at Gebo, however, proved short-lived. In 1912, the owners of the Gebo mine abruptly ceased all operations and the town was soon virtually abandoned.
The Gebo Cemetery holds an estimated 200 graves. Many of them are the burial sites of individuals who lived and died in Gebo during its short-lived period of prosperity at the turn of the century; it is believed that nearly 60 of 129 marked burials were children under the age of two. Most others are the burial sites of pioneers who passed away after the town's decline in the early 1910s. Although the first burial was made in the cemetery in 1899, the earliest marked graves date to 1901. Several grave markers list deaths that occurred between then and about 1918, and there are numerous graves of individuals who died in the 1930s. Just a few burials have been made in the cemetery in recent years.
The overall appearance of the cemetery is somewhat haphazard. Grave markers are mostly clustered in the southwest sector of the plot where the terrain is fairly level. They generally are aligned north-to-south but rows are difficult to discern, largely because of overgrowth and the presence of several unmarked graves.
From the NRHP Registration Form