Cemetery Services
Cordova Cemetery:
Located along the Copper River Highway, the Cordova Cemetery is the largest cemetery of the four. The property was once owned by the Copper River and Northwest Railroad and later owned by Hollis Henrichs. In the 1940’s, Henrichs traded the property to the City in exchange for other property. This cemetery has been the main burial grounds since then.
Lakeview Cemetery:
Lakeview Cemetery (also called the Pioneer Cemetery) is located on Lake Avenue where the street becomes Power Creek Road. It is across from the Old Eyak Cemetery. It is a large cemetery on the base of Mt. Eyak, therefore, the ground goes uphill. There is a road up the middle and the land on the west side of the road was predominantly used for the graves of Natives as evidenced by the numerous Russian Orthodox crosses (crosses with three arms).
The land on which the cemetery is located was once a cow pasture. Parts of the old fence still remain. The cemetery was started in 1918 and the hillside was cleared an acre or two at a time as needed. As a result, the rows of graves are set at different angles in different sections. General use of this cemetery ended in the 1940’s when the Cordova Cemetery was started. Burials were allowed sporadically until 2002.
Odiak Cemetery:
Odiak Cemetery is located on South Second Street, east of the high school and on the west edge of Odiak Slough. It is a very small cemetery in a residential area and only two headstones mark graves there. It was used for a brief time between 1918 and 1920. Wooden headboards, tiny picket fences and rocks once marked the graves.
Old Eyak Cemetery:
The Old Eyak Cemetery is the oldest community cemetery in Cordova and was in use from the turn of the century until 1918 with a few sporadic burials after that. It is located on the end of Lake Avenue as it becomes Power Creek Road. The cemetery is along the edge of Lake Eyak and has only a few wooden headboards marking graves. Trees have grown up in the cemetery and the only visible signs of graves are humps.
Originally, the cemetery included burials on a finger of land that jutted out into the lake. In April of 1935, a spring storm washed out these graves and coffins had to be retrieved from Lake Eyak. On April 22, 1935, the remains of twenty-eight unknown individuals were reburied in a common grave in Lakeview Cemetery across the road.
Old Eyak Cemetery is adjacent to Nirvana Park and the spit that was once a burial ground is now known as Nirvana Spit. There is a lone grave on the Spit protected by a Spirit House. This grave contains bones from an unknown Native that were repatriated in the 1990’s.