The Springdale Hilltop Cemetery is locally significant as the first cemetery established during the settlement of Springdale, Washington County, Utah. Springdale’s first cemetery is the earliest extant historic resource to represent Springdale under Criterion A in the area of Exploration/Settlement. The period dates from the first burial in 1862 to the last burial in 1957. This span represents the Exploration/Settlement period because the cemetery was maintained even as a second municipal cemetery was established in 1900. Prior to 1900, approximately 62 burials took place. Between 1901 and 1957, only fourteen family burials took place. During the first half of the twentieth century, the Hilltop Cemetery was preserved in its original condition, despite the dramatic rise in tourism development in Springdale, which became the gateway to Zion National Park after the park’s designation in 1919. The Springdale Hilltop Cemetery meets Criterion Consideration D for cemeteries as the only extant resource to possess important historic associations from the community’s earliest period of settlement. Because of its relative isolation and disuse, the Springdale Hilltop Cemetery embodies the essence of a nineteenth-century pioneer cemetery in southern Utah. There are no fences or vehicular access and natural vegetation is the only landscaping at the site. The cemetery features examples of simple Victorian-era gravestones in a rural cemetery. The property is particularly significant for the ubiquitous Victorian-era custom of placing stones around the perimeter of individual graves.
