Description

A. Acuna headstone at the Weaver Cemetery.

The town of Weaver was originally known as Weaverville and was founded in the early 1860s. This area had the richest placer deposits in Arizona and was named in honor of early-day Arizona pioneer Pauline Weaver (b. 1800 - d. 1867), the leader of the expedition that discovered gold in this area. The town became an overnight success but eventually became known as a "hangout" for thieves and robbers. Later, Weaver was absorbed into the town of Octave, Arizona. The desert below Rich Hill in Southern Yavapai County was once home to three bustling mining towns, Weaver, Octave and Stanton. All of them are ghost towns today.

The Weaver Cemetery is in a terrible state of decay, although in recent years, Boy Scout troops and organizations such as the Arizona Pioneer Cemetery Research Project have cleaned up the site, and covered recognizable graves with rocks and white crosses. However, there are no names on the graves. These photos here on the Sharlot Hall Museum Library & Archives website are historically valuable in that they show tombstones and markers that are no longer exist in the actual cemetery today. The Octave Cemetery is also in an advanced state of decay, with only a few markers remaining, none with names. The Stanton Cemetery, known to exist, has vanished completely and no one knows where it was located, although “grave dowsers” - people who use divining rods to locate graves - claim to have found it. While the public can visit the Weaver and Octave cemeteries, the locations are remote and 4-wheel-drive vehicles are recommended.