Custer Cemetery

Custer Cemetery. . Yankee Fork residents found few comforts and many hardships due to their remote location. Snow slides, work-related accidents, and disease combined with the lack of medical services created a difficult lifestyle. Evidence of this location is the tragic story of young Julian Riley Thompson. At the age of three months, Julian began to show stress at feeding time, which often led to convulsions. Relief came when his mother immersed him in warm water. As a result, a kettle of hot water was alway at hand. On one occasion the child's seizures rushed the mother to the kettle only to find it empty. A visiting friend mistakenly used the water to rinse dishes. Panicked, the mother ran into the nearby McGown Saloon. Finding the hot water she searched for, she returned to her child only to find it too late. Seven month old Julian Riley Thompson was buried on April 18, 1881! When travel to the main cemetery at Bonanza was difficult or impossible, people were buried here at the Custer Cemetery. . This historical marker was erected by U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Bureau of Land Management. It is in Custer City (ghost town) in Custer County Idaho