Five

CLARKDALE VALLEY
VIEW CEMETERY

The town of Clarkdale was originally formed to house the miners and other employees of William A. Clark’s United Verde Copper Company. The town was constructed down the mountain from Jerome, near the mine’s smelters.

After the mines closed in the 1930s, Clarkdale, like Jerome, struggled for survival and ultimately succeeded. Today, it is a scenic, historical, and pleasant town.

The Clarkdale Valley View Cemetery started with resident burials but began to take Jerome’s burials after the Jerome Pioneer Cemetery fell into disuse and disrepair. Valley View is fairly unique in that it does not conform to the tradition of graves facing east. In fact, in different sections, the graves face a number of different directions.

Valley View has separate sections for Freemasons as well as for members of the Elks Lodge BPOE. It is an old cemetery, but remains in active use today.

The cemetery is divided into multiple sections and is quite large, with older and newer graves.

The older section has seen decay from the ravages of time, much like other cemeteries in the area.

The Elks Lodge BPOE has several sections for its members, mostly from the Jerome Lodge (actually located in Clarkdale today). They allow only flat tombstones in their sections.

Adjacent to the marker for Harold Linn (1893–1970), this highly unusual sculpture honoring “Sweet Loveable” Mary Philomen Linn (1919–1938) is possibly of Masonic origin, as the secretive fraternal order of Freemasons commonly erected symbols and monuments to impart conjecture and debate among nonmembers.

The famous Jerome/Clarkdale lawman, “Uncle” Jim Roberts, is seen here in his old age. Stories are still told about him in the area, most notably about his shooting of a fleeing Clarkdale bank robber in 1928. Uncle Jim passed away in 1934. (Courtesy of Sedona Historical Society.)

The burial place of Jim Roberts is in dispute. Most historians believe (corroborated by his death certificate) that he is buried here with his wife under this stone that bears no additional names or dates. But, as seen in chapter four, a marker for him exists in the Jerome Pioneer Cemetery as well.

Unlike the Jerome cemeteries, Valley View was racially segregated in its early days, with Spanish sections for the area’s Mexican residents. Here lie Mrs. Santos T. Figueroa (1850–1926) and Geronimo Calderon (1850–1937).

Here lie the remains of Pioneer tombstones and grave monuments. Much work still needs to be done to restore the grounds to their original state.

Surprisingly, few people opt to put permanent photographs on headstones like this one for Macario Avila (1907–1929), but it does make for a beautiful memorial.

Pictured is the touching grave of Elizabeth A. Salas (1926–1927), a stark reminder of the high mortality rate of children in bygone eras.

The gravesite of Oddino Sartore (1915–1917) boasts a cast-iron marker of Mexican origin, probably imported for this particular grave.

This unusual marker almost resembles a giant cage. Inside, there are broken remnants of small Catholic statues.

One of the statues inside this marker is visibly worn and broken away from time.

Members of the little known Woodmen of the World Lodge often have quite elaborate tombstones, like this one memorializing Arcadio E. Ruiz.