Exploring Hillside cemetery, a living record of Silverton

For the past 45 years, the San Juan County Historical Society has maintained Hillside Cemetery, cleaning headstones and restoring deteriorating grave sites. Photo by Ziyi Xu, Rocky Mountain PBS
For the past 45 years, the San Juan County Historical Society has maintained Hillside Cemetery, cleaning headstones and restoring deteriorating grave sites. Photo by Ziyi Xu, Rocky Mountain PBS

(This article was originally published 10/18/25 on rmpbs. org and is being rerun in the Silverton Standard with permission)

North of Silverton, on a slope overlooking the town, lies Hillside Cemetery. About 3,000 graves mark the hillside, some with names, others blank. The cemetery stands as a record of Silverton’s history dating back to the late 19th century. In the 1950s, Freda Peterson began vis…