In June 1892, Park County Commissioners contracted with architects Galbraith and Fuller and contractor, W. H. Orr to construct Park County's Poor House on this site.
To comply with state law, services of caretakers and physicians were contracted for the care of poor house residents. Although Montana's poor house system would suffer an enigmatic reputation, the poor farm served as the only governmental safety net available for those unable to provide for themselves.
The Park County contract also provided for "burial expenses, if any there should be," and stipulated such burials, "shall be conducted in a proper and respectable manner." The Poor Farm Cemetery was established on the hillside to the west and a fenced area now marks its location. Between 1892 and 1924, at least 111 people were interred in the Poor Farm Cemetery.
By the early 1930s, a new facility was built to replace the County Poor House and renamed Sunset Farm. Designed as a rest home for the aged, both paying and county subsidized patients lived at Sunset Farm until senior health care reform led to its abandonment in the 1960s.
Buildings which once comprised Sunset Farm have since been demolished. Little evidence remains of the Park County Poor Farm; a concrete reservoir on the hill to the southeast, the entry to a root cellar, an apple tree once part of a sizeable orchard and those buried here in unmarked graves.
In 2005, Park County Genealogy Society completed research efforts to identify Park County Poor Farm Cemetery internments. The names appearing here are those which have been verified through death records and obituaries, but may not be inclusive of all who are interred.
The erection of this memorial in recognition to the people who rest here is the result of contributions by individuals and the Park County Commission.
There are two signs, one on each side of the information. Each list has 57 names, a total of 114 individuals.
Find a Grave lists 143 memorials. All are named, with the exception of three unknown men. The majority are listed with birth and death dates.
This gentleman is possibly the first interment:
John “Jack The Ripper” Culliton
Birth: unknown – Death: December 13, 1892.
A memorial to those individuals who died while at the Park County Poor House. The cemetery is now vacant, with no markers.