Ehrenberg Pioneer Cemetery

The town of Ehrenberg, Arizona , was once a bustling steamboat stop along the Colorado River. At its prime, more than 500 people called the small settlement home.

Ehrenberg was created in 1869 and named after Hermann Ehrenberg, a German emigrant. Hermann spent three years working with the Mojave people along the Colorado River from 1863 until his untimely murder in 1866.

The town thrived as a steamboat stop along the river through the mid-1870s. But things began looking grim when the steamboats were replaced by the modern railroad. Ehrenberg soon became a ghost town.

All that remains of the original town of Ehrenberg are the stone-covered graves and hand-carved wooden markers scattered across the Pioneer Cemetery. They pay a ghostly homage to the Old West. The cemetery was given a permanent monument by the Arizona Highway Department in 1935.

Get more unusual and extraordinary places each week with the Atlas Obscura Places newsletter.

Your newsletter subscriptions with us are subject to Atlas Obscura's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use .