Coulson (Boothill) Cemetery Park

Billings, Montana

Listen to Audio

Coulson Cemetery Park, commonly referred to as Boothill Cemetery, is a two-acre, hilltop parcel owned by the City of Billings, located at the intersection of Aronson Avenue and Swords Lane near MetraPark.

The park, as well as the town Coulson, the predecessor of present-day Billings, draws its name from the Coulson Packet Line, which operated steamboats from St. Louis on the Missouri River and the lower stretches of the Yellowstone River until competition from the railroad displaced it in the mid-1800s.

The exact number and names of the individuals buried in Coulson Cemetery Park are a matter of conjecture. The consensus of those who have studied the site puts the number between 130 and 150. The majority were interred during Coulson’s short-lived heyday, from 1877 to 1882. In many cases, the deceased were interred using their assumed, versus given, names. Many died violent deaths; others were not identified.

Read More

Klint Dills and Milton Summer, trappers killed by a raiding party of Nez Perce warriors on July 13, 1877, are regarded as two of the first interments. The final burial took place in 1884.

After the cemetery stopped actively serving the community, a well-known and widely respected Billings resident named I.D. O’Donnell preserved and maintained it, deeding it to the City of Billings in 1929. O’Donnell had received the title through a series of transactions originating with the Minnesota and Montana Land and Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Longtime observers suggest that some gravesites may have been inadvertently destroyed when the roadways were constructed along the eastern and western boundaries of the site.

A rock and mortar obelisk dominates the park’s landscape. O’Donnell had the structure erected in 1922. Halfway up the obelisk’s west side is a concrete plaque with the inscription, “Died, 1877-1882.”

The Cemetery contains only two headstones. It is uncertain whether they mark actual gravesites. In 1975 and 1976, as part of a Boy Scouts of America project, crude and damaged stone markers were removed and, in their place, crosses were erected in neat rows that bore no relationship to actual gravesites. Today, none of the crosses remain.

In 2019, a class of history students at Montana State University Billings under the instruction of Professor Thomas Rust performed a ground-penetrating imaging project and identified many of the gravesites. Through this process the researchers identified 149-155 very likely or probable interments.

The Coulson Cemetery Park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

A Resting Place at the Crossroads and Epicenter of History

The Coulson Cemetery Park lies on the edge of ancient trails, buffalo hunting grounds and at the center of many historic events that profoundly shaped the region and what is now Yellowstone County.

Recent discoveries suggest Alkali Creek served as an ancient pathway that was used by early travelers who crossed the ice-bridge from Asia to North America, on their way to what is now the American Southwest, Mexico, and Central America.

Skeleton Cliff, also known as Place of Skulls, the rocky outcropping immediately to the west of the Cemetery, was used by the Crow Tribe as a ceremonial burial ground.

On his way to rendezvous with Meriwether Lewis at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, William Clark and his contingent of the Corps of Discovery passed nearby in 1806. In his journal, Clark described a large rock which he “ascended and from it’s top had a most extensive view in every direction.” Clark named the feature “Pompey’s Tower” in his original journal and inscribed his name and date in the sandstone. Today, Clark’s inscription on Pompey’s Pillar (as it is now known) is the only visible evidence of the entire Lewis & Clark expedition that remains intact.

In 1823, the Blackfeet Tribe, disturbed by the presence of white men in their territory, stalked and then massacred a group of trappers several hundred yards from the cemetery. The event, which became known as the Immel-Jones Massacre, severely dampened exploration and trapping in the region.

In 1837-1838, two young Crow warriors, aggrieved by the loss of hundreds of their tribe resulting from a smallpox epidemic, dressed in their finest clothing, and singing death songs, rode a blinded horse over a cliff on the south side of the Yellowstone River. This story of spiritual self-sacrifice became known as The Place Where the White Horse Went Down. Until recently, a sign commemorating the story graced the cemetery.

On August 14, 1873, the United States Army, assigned to protect a railroad survey party, engaged in a daylong battle against Sitting Bull and the Sioux, along with Lakota, Northern Arapaho and Northern Cheyenne warriors. Baker’s Battle on Yellowstone, also known as The Battle of Poker Flat, 1872, took place about five miles northeast of the cemetery.

Luther Sage “Yellowstone” Kelly, referred to by some as one of the “greatest hunters, trappers, and Indian scouts” of the American West was laid to rest at the top of the rimrocks to the west of the cemetery.

Finally, the cemetery lies at the easternmost entrance to the City’s extensive trail system via Chief Black Otter Trail.

Ballad of Boot Hill

Fifty graves on the brow of the hill,

Aglow in the blazing western sun;

Fifty men who fought with a will—

And died with their boots on, every one.

Houston Daily Post, Nov. 1906

Where “Bad Men” Sleep Their Last Sleep.

Cemetery near Billings, Mont., where fifty graves tell of as many violent deaths.

Minneapolis Journal, October 1906.

The “Boots” Graveyard

With the advent of Coulson came the establishment of the “Boots” graveyard. There is a popular opinion to the effect that this ancient cemetery derived its pecurliar name from the fact that every one buried therein died with his boots on. An old citizen informs the writer that this idea is erroneous. Two or three of the interred of the graves on the lonely hill were suicides and several others died from accidental injuries. The writer has counted 34 graves in the cemetery. It is located on a bleak hill on the ridge that divdes Alkali Creek from the Yellowstone Valley and is about a mile north of the old town. It is possible that many more were buried there and their graves are unmarked. The first victim of the “killing” spirit that prevailed to a greater or less extent in those days was buried in the “Boots” graveyard in March 1882. He was a waiter in a restaurant and while watching a big gambling game he made some untimely remark which reflected on the honesty of the dealer. The gambler stabbed him to death and fled and was never captured.

The Anaconda Standard, Sunday, December 17, 1905.