Boot Hill Cemetery

At Boot Hill Cemetery, visitors say some of those who died violently still walk the grounds. Established in 1863 during the Boise Basin gold rush, when Idaho City's population swelled toward 30,000, this pioneer cemetery holds more than 2,000 burials, many unmarked. Of the first 200 people buried here, only 28 died of natural causes — the rest were killed in the gunfights, fires, and disease that marked the boomtown's violent early years. About 200 grave markers remain today, in sections originally set aside for the Masonic and Odd Fellows societies, Catholics, and Chinese miners.