BONANZA GHOSTTOWN & CEMETERY

Big Horn County, Wyoming

N 44 12.573   W 107 45.084

Altitude 4878'

Bonanza was named because oil was discovered seeping from a spring here in 1887.  Oil was so good it could be burned in lamps without refining.  Promoters thought they had found a "bonanza," but it did not prove so and rigs pulled out in 1890.  Deeper drilling has now brought back the Bonanza oil field, but the town remains a ghosttown.  If you visit the cemetery, you've seen everything.

The Bonanza Cemetery is located about 8 miles west of Hyattville at the junction of Hwy 31 and Road 31 1/2.  Turn left or south on the dirt Road 31 1/2  and drive .2 mile.  The fenced  cemetery is to your right, or west, on a knoll.  You turn from the Bonanza Oil Field Road and wind your way through the sagebrush and up the hill to the cemetery, another .5 mile.  The cemetery is well cared for under the circumstances of its isolated locality.  Ah!  the smell of sagebrush.

There are 42 known graves representing 9 surnames.

Diehl (baby) 26 Sep 1902, age 1 month

Baby (no dates)

Baby (no date) (possibly Mayer)

McDermott (baby) (no dates)

McDermott, Mrs (no dates)

McDermott, Mr (no dates)

Pug (?) (no dates)

Madden, Pete (no dates)

Madden, Pete's brother (no dates)

Taylor, Lon (no dates)

Taylor, Charles E.   4 Oct 1889--10 Jun 1900

(Adult unmarked grave next to Charles Taylor)

Sheldon, Sam (no dates)

Mayer (baby) (no dates)

Mayer, Donna Jean  1928--1929

Mayer, Mavin I. 1937

Mayer (no dates)

Mayer (no dates)

Mayer (no dates)

Mayer, Dora Rose 1903--1917

Mayer, Pearl  1908--1910

Mayer, Robert I.  1930

Mayer, Samuel 1915

Mayer, Vera M.  1928

Mayer, Vernon I. 1925

Mayer, Winona Mary  1933-1933

Paumer, (baby)  1914--1914

Paumer, John B.  1910--1981

Paumer, Josephine  1873--1928 (two stones)

Paumer, Mike A.  1907--1988

Paumer, William  1858--1940

Boyd, Delvina Pearl 26 May 1882--31 Aug 1925  (dau of W. A. Rettinghouse)

Rettinghouse, Dora E. 2 Mar 1892--18 Jun 1918

Rettinghouse, Elizabeth L.  12 Jan 1863--16 Mar 1894

Rettinghouse, Encil A.  8 Mar 1888--9 Sep 1903

Rettinghouse, J. F. (no dates)

Rettinghouse, M.  (no dates)

Rettinghouse, Mary  (no dates)

Rettinghouse, Mary E. 12 Oct 1909--20 Jun 1918

Rettinghouse, William Andrew 1853--12 Jun 1931

Rettinghouse, William F.  8 May 1913--27 Jan 1919

Rettinghouse, John

1870--26 Nov 1936  age 57 yrs

This grave not yet confirmed.

The tombstone information was provided by Dixie Bjornstead and her daughter Lisa Bower.  A few corrections have been made.