Mountain Park Cemetery is the principal burial ground of Saint Jo, Texas — or at least the largest one. The town has three. Mountain Park, on FM 677 at the edge of the municipal area, holds the most documented memorials: 2,218 records on Find A Grave, 92 percent of them photographed as of the research date. Starkey Cemetery, on US 82, has 678 records. Center Point Cemetery, in the Fairview community a few miles away, has 581. Together the three represent the full scope of Saint Jo’s burial landscape, distributed across the northern edge of Montague County in the way that rural Texas settlement always distributed itself — not concentrated in one place but scattered across the roads and communities that organized daily life.
Mountain Park goes by a second name — Saint Jo City Cemetery — that appears in some county records and in the Genealogy Trails inventory. The two names refer to the same burial ground. The “Mountain Park” designation is the canonical name per Find A Grave (Cemetery #5451) and the MCHC inventory. The “Saint Jo City” name reflects the municipal affiliation.
Location and Size
Mountain Park Cemetery is located on FM 677 in Saint Jo, Montague County. It is the northernmost of the three Saint Jo–area cemeteries in terms of proximity to the FM 677 corridor. The cemetery’s FM 677 address connects it to a farm road that also serves Illinois Bend Memorial Cemetery further north — the same road traces the settlements of northern Montague County from Saint Jo up through the Illinois Bend community to the Red River country.
GPS coordinates for Mountain Park have not been confirmed in available sources. BillionGraves holds GPS-linked headstone records for many Texas cemeteries, and a targeted search for Cemetery #5451 there would likely provide the coordinates.
The 92-percent photography rate on Find A Grave — approximately 2,040 of 2,218 memorials with photographic records — reflects a sustained volunteer documentation effort. That percentage is among the higher rates in the county’s cemetery record and suggests active community interest in preserving the burial archive. The remaining 8 percent (approximately 178 unphotographed memorials) likely includes weather-damaged stones, illegible inscriptions, very recent burials, and sections not yet reached by volunteer photographers.
Establishment and Connection to Saint Jo’s History
No establishment date for Mountain Park Cemetery has been confirmed in available sources. The THC Atlas search conducted in May 2026 did not locate an HTC designation or historical marker for this cemetery. The MCHC inventory records the name and location but not a founding year.
Saint Jo’s founding context provides the probable frame. The town was established in the 1850s when brothers James and Amos Singletary and John Hughes platted the original townsite. Saint Jo’s early growth was tied to the Chisholm Trail era — the Stonewall Saloon’s 1873 founding coincided with the trail’s peak traffic years, and Saint Jo developed as a commercial stop on the cattle-drive corridor. As the town grew from a scatter of settlers into a recognized community, it would have needed a community burial ground. Mountain Park’s establishment almost certainly falls in the 1860s or 1870s, though the specific founding year has not been documented.
The absence of a confirmed establishment date is common for Montague County’s smaller municipal cemeteries. Mountain Park’s size — 2,218 documented memorials — indicates a substantial long-term burial record, but that record has not been systematically analyzed for earliest burial dates in available research.
Municipal Governance and Management
Mountain Park Cemetery is governed by the Saint Jo municipal government or a designated city authority. No specific cemetery association name has been located in available sources, and no formal maintenance entity beyond the city was identified. The “Saint Jo City Cemetery” alternate name reinforces the municipal association, though the precise governance arrangement — whether an independent cemetery board, the city parks department, or another body — has not been confirmed.
Active status is inferred from the ongoing Find A Grave photography rate and the continued appearance of recent memorial records. The cemetery receives burials and is maintained as a working municipal burial ground.
Saint Jo’s Three Cemeteries
Mountain Park sits within a cluster of three cemeteries that serve the Saint Jo area. All three lack confirmed establishment dates and HTC designations as of the research date. Their relationship to each other is geographic: Mountain Park serves the municipal center, Starkey Cemetery sits along US 82 east of town, and Center Point Cemetery serves the rural Fairview community to the south.
Mountain Park Cemetery (Find A Grave #5451) — FM 677; 2,218 memorials, 92% photographed; municipal character; this page
Starkey Cemetery (Find A Grave #678) — US 82; 678 memorials, 91% photographed; the Starkey family name appears in early Saint Jo–area settlement records; rural character
Center Point Cemetery (Find A Grave #3520) — Fairview area; 581 memorials, 89% photographed; triple-name designation (Center Point / Fairview / Bonita); most rural of the three
Together these three cemeteries hold approximately 3,477 Find A Grave memorial records representing the Saint Jo area’s documented burial history. None has a confirmed historical marker or HTC designation in the available record, which suggests that the formal recognition layer for Saint Jo–area cemeteries is less developed than for Bowie and Montague.
Chisholm Trail and Settlement Context
Saint Jo’s location in northern Montague County placed it near significant 19th-century cattle movement. The Chisholm Trail’s main route ran through the county, with the Red River Station crossing at Spanish Fort serving as the primary documented crossing point. Saint Jo itself developed as a trail-era commercial stop, and the Stonewall Saloon’s 1873 founding in Saint Jo reflects the town’s position on the trail economy.
Mountain Park Cemetery’s 19th-century burial cohort — while not systematically enumerated in available sources — almost certainly includes trail-era residents: merchants, saloon operators, ranchers, and the workers who moved cattle through the region. The founding Singletary and Hughes families, who established Saint Jo in the 1850s, would likely have buried their dead at Mountain Park once the cemetery was established; identifying those early settler interments requires systematic cross-reference of the Find A Grave corpus with Saint Jo founding-family records.
Documentation Gaps and Research Pathways
Mountain Park Cemetery’s research record is limited to the facts confirmed from Find A Grave, the MCHC inventory, and Genealogy Trails. The following information has not been confirmed and requires Phase 2B research:
- Establishment date and earliest confirmed burial
- Founding family or land donor
- HTC designation status (requires direct THC Atlas form submission)
- Texas Historical Marker status
- GPS coordinates (BillionGraves or field survey)
- Named notable burials
- Current maintenance governance structure
- Condition assessment
The Saint Jo city government, the Montague County Historical Commission, and the Montague County Cemetery Preservation Committee (MCCPC) are the primary institutional contacts.
Genealogical Access
For researchers, Find A Grave Cemetery #5451 is the primary access point, with 92-percent photography coverage providing strong remote access to the grave record. Texas Death Certificates (1903 onward, indexed on FamilySearch) cover the 20th-century burial record. Pre-1903 burials must be traced through county probate records, church registers, family Bible records, and any digitized Saint Jo newspaper archives.