Beer barons, statesman, artists, entrepreneurs, pioneers in exploration and human rights advocates, are among the 87,000 who create the flowing mosaic of American culture in St. Louis and rest permanently at Bellefontaine Cemetery.

The 314-acre active cemetery displays picturesque landscapes via 14 miles of roads leading visitors to such notables as General William Clark, Adolphus Busch, Sara Teasdale, Thomas Hart Benton and William Burroughs.

Founded in 1849, Bellefontaine is the first rural cemetery west of the Mississippi, and one of the nation's finest examples of a garden cemetery. Bellefontaine reflects and represents the art, sculpture, history and legacy of St. Louis and its culture.

Taking two adjacent cemeteries together, Bellefontaine Cemetery & Calvary Cemetery, there is no place on earth where more Union and Confederate generals lie at rest is such close proximity—more generals who commanded armies during the American Civil War lie here than are buried at Arlington National Cemetery and West Point combined.

This cementery holds 150 markers of soldiers who died during the Civil War. Each marker includes a brief account of where, when and how that soldier died.

Calvary Cemetery, in north St. Louis, is the second oldest cemetery of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. This cemetery contains the graves of Dred Scott; General William Tecumseh Sherman; playwright Tennessee Williams; and many noted persons identified with the beginning of St. Louis.

Taking two adjacent cemeteries together, Bellefontaine Cemetery & Calvary Cemetery, there is no place on earth where more Union and Confederate generals lie at rest is such close proximity—more generals who commanded armies during the American Civil War lie here than are buried at Arlington National Cemetery and West Point combined.

Established by an act of the Missouri General Assembly in 1849, Lexington's Machpelah Cemetery is one of Missouri’s oldest corporations in continuous existence. Among those buried here are victims of the 1852 Saluda steamboat explosion; one of the founders of the Pony Express; and Civil War soldiers killed in the 1861 Battle of Lexington. A guide is available from the Lexington Tourism Bureau.

Established in 1851, Mount Mora is the oldest operating cemetery in St. Joseph. The boom years of the post Civil War period, known as St. Joseph's Golden Age, gave rise to the building of some of the finest tomb architecture. Mausoleum Row, near the main gate to the cemetery, reads like a who's who of St. Joseph's economic and social elite, vying against one another to build magnificent mausoleums. Three Missouri governors are buried at Mount Mora: Robert M. Stewart; Willard P. Hall; Silas Woodson. The Swamp Fox of the Confederacy, M. Jeff Thompson, is buried here.

There are more than 1,500 burial sites for veterans of war, dating from the War of 1812 to the Vietnam War. It was originally intended to be used as a burial site for Civil War soldiers from the surrounding area, with the first burial taking place in 1861. This cemetery holds the distinction of being a final resting place for both Federal and Confederate soldiers. Federal gravestones have a familiar arched top while the Confederate gravestones have a gabled angle top.

Established in 1808, Old Lorimier Cemetery is believed to hold more than 6,500 burial sites, most of which are unmarked. A sidewalk serves as a north-south dividing line. It is said that Catholics are buried on the south, Protestants on the north. The east slope is believed to be the burial grounds of African-Americans. More than 1,200 Civil War soldiers are buried here.

Heroes from all wars are buried in the Springfield National Cemetery, including a Revolutionary War soldier and hundreds of Civil War soldiers killed during the Battle of Pea Ridge, Battle of Wilson’s Creek and the Battle of Springfield. Several special monuments have been erected in memoriam to fallen heroes, the earliest of which was erected in 1888 in memory of General Nathaniel Lyon, who was killed at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek.