C. E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery - Kalispell, Montana
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T0SHEA
N 48° 12.196 W 114° 17.341
11U E 701423 N 5342446
To find the C. E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery: From Hwy. 2/E. Idaho Street turn south on Woodland Park Drive. Turn west on Conrad Drive to Tahoe Drive (350 meters), turn north and continue to "Y" turn right to cemetery.
Waymark Code: WMKZYE
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 06/24/2014
Views: 7
The C. E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery is a very large cemetery and located in Flathead County. There are approximately 18,000 gravesites.
There is a very large Veteran's Memorial also in the cemetery. It is most impressive, listing all the men and woman who honorably served their country.
In December 2012, the C. E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Checking the NRHP database, the listing is not digitized as of yet. There is a newspaper article describing the dedication.
Excerpts:
The cemetery named for Kalispell founder Charles E. Conrad now has an official place in history.
A decade after the nomination process first began the 110-year-old C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Trustees of the cemetery association will be presented with the registration certificate at an awards ceremony Jan. 18 in Helena.
A little history about the C. E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery and its beginning:
One fine fall day in 1902, Kalispell founder Charles E. Conrad and his wife Alicia took a last horseback ride to a favorite area and rested on the narrow overlook where the valley spread below. Charles told his wife there could be no lovelier place for his final rest. Charles died weeks later, but not before he sketched the mausoleum he wanted Alicia to build in the place he had chosen.
She carried out her husband’s wishes and had more than one hundred stone steps set into the steep cliff below, allowing private access to her husband’s gravesite. Alicia Conrad worked tirelessly to establish a community cemetery serving all people and all faiths as a memorial to her husband.
She traveled extensively to find the right design. At her invitation, A. W. Hobert, superintendent of the famed Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, visited the site and agreed there was none more beautiful. He designed the cemetery in 1903 as a classic Rural Garden Landscape. This concept in urban cemetery planning, first employed in Paris, France, and later in Boston, Massachusetts, offered a park-like setting for the enjoyment of nature as well as burial of loved ones.
Alicia initiated a legislative bill, passed in 1905, establishing cemetery management and perpetual care. This cemetery became the prototype for perpetual care cemeteries in Montana. Today, 104 acres include more than 18,000 burials among winding driveways, sweeping lawns, and formal plantings that blend into the spectacular natural setting. Alicia Conrad laid the foundation for thoughtful management and careful stewardship. This unique cemetery welcomes all to enjoy its special features.
Source: Montana Moments
There are three famous gravesites, co-founder of Kalispell and two Governors of Montana:
Charles E. Conrad was born May 20, 1850 in Virginia and he died November 28, 1902.
Charles E. Conrad was an early Montana pioneer and co-founder of the city of Kalispell, Montana. He was the second oldest of 13 children born to James W. and Maria S. Ashby-Conrad. Dramatic changes, caused by the Civil War, changed the Conrad family's lifestyle. Once plantation owners in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia the family was reduced to poverty.
Around 1890, Conrad and his young wife spent several weeks in the Flathead Valley and decided to make the area their home. Conrad arranged with his good friend, railroad baron Jim Hill, to have the new railroad that was stretching across Montana Territory from the East, come through the area north of Flathead Lake.
Mr. Conrad laid out a town site, named it Kalispell after the local Indian inhabitants and selected lots for the construction of his own home. The Conrad Mansion, designed by the famous Spokane architect Kirkland Cutter, and the magnificent carriage house and stables located to the east of the mansion, took three years to build and was completed in 1896.
The main house exists to this day and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Robert Burns Smith was born December 29, 1854 and he died November 16, 1908.
He served as Governor of Montana from 1897 to 1901.
Plot: Section H, #158
John Edward Erickson was born March 14, 1863 and he died May 25, 1946.
He served as the Governor of Montana from 1925 to 1933. He also served as a State Court Judge and United States Senator from Montana from 1933 to 1934.
