Sand Point Cemetery

Cemetery Status: Lost/Abandoned

"Located just northeast of 275th Street & Ashland Avenue, this abandoned site is only 1/4 mile north of Sand Ridge Cemetery. Sand Point was known as Old Pioneer, or Pioneer in the WPA records of the 1930s & as Smith's in the Bicentennial era of the mid-1970s, but this confused it with the Smith's Cemetery on the north side of the Des Moines River. Sand Point is on a ridge above Cedar Creek. It may have been started as a smallpox cemetery to keep burials separate from Sand Ridge, a still active cemetery with burials going back to 1846. Earliest known burial in Sand Point is 1851. The nearest town is Tracy, in Marion County. Sand Point is now a jungle of poison ivy, cat briar, and small trees. Coneflowers and daylilies were planted near the entrance 15 years ago near the gravestones of the three Jones women. Exploring beyond this point is an adventure. There are many footstones and fieldstones. Photography is difficult due to shade & brush enveloping most stones." Source: www.findagrave.com

"Sand Point (formerly called Smith Cemetery). There is also a Smith cemetery nearby in Scott Township. The Smith families were not related. Jefferson Township, Mahaska County, Iowa SE 1/4 Sec 31 (North). No records. This cemetery is less than 1/4 mile north of Sandridge Cemetery. It lies at the north end of a bluff bordering Cedar Creek, southeast of the bridge over the creek." Source: Russell E. and Barbara Hetherington, March 21, 1975. [Index for Mahaska County Cemeteries, Oskaloosa Public Library]

"This Cemetery is presently being restored by Benjamin J. Mayer of Oskaloosa. It is on Mahaska County Conservation [MCCB] property. I have located 34 graves as of May 7, 1992. Probably more. A plat and other info will be kept at the MCCB hedquts. as soon as I make it." Source: [signature illegible, handwritten in Index for Mahaska County Cemeteries, Oskaloosa Public Library]

I located this cemetery on November 17, 2023, and virtually all of the stones are unreadable at this point in time. The cemetery itself is fenced, with saplings and briars throughout. I am currently attempting to locate the plat maps referenced above, but I believe that the property is now on private land and not under the auspices of MCCB. - Susie Keller-McCain