CROSBY GHOSTTOWN AND CEMETERY

Hot Springs County, Wyoming

N 43 46.941   W 108 11.781

Section 13, Twp 44N, R 94W

This town was named for Jesse W. Crosby, Mormon pioneer.  The town was started by Dad Jones, prospector and miner, who supplied Thermopolis with coal from Crosby in the early 1890's.  The coal mines closed here in 1932.  Just seven years earlier, there were 125 kids in the Crosby school.  This ghosttown is a real ghost, as the only thing left is one tombstone.

The cemetery is an out-of-the-way, very isolated, very small plot with 7-9 circular stone sites.  It is not well kept, but very well protected from animals and livestock with a nice chain link fence that must be scaled for entry.  Only one gravesite has a headstone: “Infant Dau. Of Pearl & Zimri Houser   Born June 21, 1912".  The headstone is well peppered with bullet marks on the un-inscripted side.  To reach this cemetery from Worland, travel south on US Hwy 20, about 22 miles, until you reach the crossroad to the town of Kirby.  Continue on the main highway for another 2 miles to the Marathon Oilfield Road at the green Gebo Oil Field sign.  Bear right or west.  Travel on the pavement for .7 miles and then bear right on the dirt road.  Follow this road across the creek bed and up a rise for .1 miles.  Round the hill at the top of the rise and look back behind the hill for a chain-link fenced plot.  It is best to walk to the plot rather than driving to the exact area.

The Crosby cemetery can be reached overland from the Gebo Cemetery best by pickup.  You travel past the large, old, rusted fan that was used to blow air down into the coal mines, then along the dirt road past the piles of gravel underneath the hill, past the beer bottles on the left barrow pit, up over the hill, and finally round the ridge to see the cemetery.  The two cemeteries are 2.3 miles apart by pickup travel.  If you are worried about getting lost, don’t plan on asking directions, as there is no one around.  Keep your cell phone handy, as there is access.

I have reviewed pre—1927 records extraction data from the Mortuary of P. H. Knight, Hot Springs County Wyoming, and found three burials in Crosby:

BRITTHAUER, John Eric

Born: July 9, 1926  Crosby, Wyoming

Died: July 9 1926   Crosby, Wyoming

Buried:   Crosby, Wyoming

Father:  John Britthauer  born Brush, Colorado

Mother:   Leona, Batshaw  born St. Paul, Minnesota

MULLENDORE, Lyle Earnest

Born:  May 13, 1911  Montana

Died:  November 8, 1925   Thermopolis, Wyoming

Buried:   Crosby, Wyoming

Father:  Ellsworth Mullendore   born Peru, Indiana

Mother:  Lane…..  born Kansas

RADOVICH,  Twila Bell

Born:  December 21, 1924  Crosby, MT?

Died: November 21, 1925  Hopewell, Wyoming

Buried:   Crosby, Wyoming

Father:   Pete Radovich  born Montenegro

Mother:   Nora Ekis  born Cambria, Wyoming

In 1984,  a description of the cemetery listed:

ROBERT, BABY (no dates) CHILD OF MIRIAM ROBERTS