Attractions:
Boot Hill
Since cowboys generally were buried with their boots on, the
first cemetery in the area was aptly named Boot Hill. It was
Ogallala’s only official burying the "end of the trail"
decade, from 1874 through 1884. A hundred or more people
were rolled in canvas and dropped into a shallow grave
during that time, a remarkable death rate for a settlement
that never exceeded 130 permanent residents.
Among the bodies buried there are Union Pacific tracklayer's killed in an Indian raid, horse thieves and gun fight victims. Also buried on Boot Hill were women and children who died of consumption, snakebite, and typhoid. One such grave contained Mrs. Miller, a local rancher’s young wife and her infant daughter, both of whom died in early childbirth. A perplexing mystery surrounds the discovery of the petrifaction of Mrs. Miller’s body and not that of her child.