Benton Avenue Cemetery

Benton Avenue Cemetery. . Gold discoveries at Last Chance Gulch in 1864 brought a diverse population to the booming settlement of Helena. In 1870, Lewis and Clark County Commissioners established this ten-acre cemetery to serve the growing population. The first interments date to 1870. The historic road that borders the cemetery's east side, known as Benton Avenue, brought mourners and funeral processions from town. Benton Avenue became a convenient short-cut for lighter traffic off the main freighting routes and the Helena-Benton Road that entered town from North Main Street. Four simple quadrants divide the cemetery. Its central driveway is the original wagon road that led into the burial ground. Family plots dominate the southern half, outlined in stone curbing or wrought iron fencing. In 1872, the Masons purchased the northeast quadrant and most burials there have Masonic affiliations. The north west quadrant includes many unmarked graves, some of them unidentified reinterments from the city's first cemetery, the site of present-day Central School. Lewis and Clark County operated the cemetery from 1870 to 1922 when the Benton Avenue Cemetery Association incorporated and acquired the deed from the county. Benton Avenue Cemetery achieved listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.