Lone Fir Cemetery

Founded in 1848 and listed on the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register for Historic Places, Lone Fir Cemetery is located in Portland, Oregon between Southeast Morrison and Stark streets, and between Southeast 20th and 26th avenues. Lone Fir is one of Portland’s oldest pioneer cemeteries, a thirty-acre living-history park that illuminates our past and our culture in unique and profound ways.

Lone Fir was established by James B. Stephens, who founded and platted the town of East Portland. The first person to be buried here was his father, Emmor Stephens. Many of Portland’s original founders and prominent citizens and their families are buried at Lone Fir, including six mayors of the city and four governors of the state.

The cemetery eventually passed out of private hands and for decades was owned and managed by Multnomah County. In 1994, ownership and management were transferred to Metro regional government. 

Lone Fir is a civic landmark and a treasured historic resource, with an extraordinary multicultural past. The lovely grounds, filled with trees that belie the cemetery’s name, sustain the memory of military veterans, firefighters, and mental hospital patients, and is a final resting place for people of diverse ethnicities and nationalities, including Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Ukrainians, Vietnamese, and African-Americans.

Lone Fir Cemetery is woven into Portland’s urban fabric, offering a vibrant portal to our past and an invaluable resource for understanding our collective journey—both our highest achievements and our toughest struggles. In 2012 National Geographic magazine named Lone Fir one of the ten best cemeteries in the world.