The historic cemetery served as the Coos Bay region’s primary burying ground in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

On July 14, 1888, the wealthy community landowner C. H. Merchant sold a piece of hillside property to the newly established Odd Fellows Cemetery Association for the sum of $350. The cemetery was officially dedicated as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Cemetery in 1891 -- a community burying ground for citizens of Empire, Marshfield, and North Bend. During its primary period of use, from the late 1880’s until 1930, over 2000 people were buried in the cemetery. During this period, most burials were hand-recorded in a set of two logbooks kept by the I.O.O.F. Cemetery Association’s secretary.

Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery encompasses four acres of greenspace with more than 2000 gravesites and about 1200 gravestones. It includes Victorian marble headstones, a 1915 monument commemorating Civil War veterans, and an elegant angel statue marking the grave of the “Father of Marshfield.” Self-guided brochures have information on shipwrecks, Civil War prison escapes, and some of the many immigrants who made the Coos Bay region home.

Respectful visitors are welcome between dawn and dusk. An access code for the main gate’s combination lock is available from the cemetery volunteers (541-435-1177), the City’s Public Works Department (541-269-8918), the Coos History Museum (541-756-6320), the Coos Bay Visitor Information Center (541-269-0215), or at the Marshfield High School principal’s office adjacent to the cemetery.

For additional information about the cemetery’s history, ongoing preservation projects, and inquiries related those interred in the cemetery, contact volunteers at cbcemetery@gmail.com or 541-435-1177.

• Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery Map
• Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery Index of Burials

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