About: Oysterville Cemetery

Oysterville cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in Washington State, began in 1858 on land owned by F.C. Davis. Located about a quarter of a mile outside the historic gold-rush boom town of Oysterville, this 2-acre cemetery holds plots for many of the founding families of the area. The history hidden in the headstones of this historic cemetery tells the tale of the Shoalwater Bay Tribe that lived in the Shoalwater Bay region; the first pioneers that came, drawn by the oyster industry; their descendants; and countless lives lost in the treacherous mouth of the Columbia, the Graveyard of the Pacific. A memorial to the last Native American chieftain of the Long Beach peninsula sits just to the right of the entrance, and a wooden sign with a marble headstone honors the unknown sailors lost