PIONEER CEMETERY
Pioneer rancher John Peterson provided property for a public cemetery in 1876. The land was offered to local government agent John Ussher. Ironically, Ussher was murdered just three years later and buried in the new cemetery in 1879. With the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, Kamloops settlement began spreading eastward towards the cemetery. The New Townsite Syndicate purchased Peterson's ranch in 1884 on speculation and title to the cemetery was included in the sale. The Syndicate immediately began charging burial fees. Peterson himself had to pay $8.00 in 1892 to bury his wife. The City of Kamloops purchased a new cemetery site in 1898 which opened in 1900.
The last burial in Pioneer Cemetery occurred in 1901. The old cemetery was gradually abandoned and left derelict until 1962 when the provincial government ordered the municipality to assume care of the site.
From the Sign at the Cemetery