Not every western American town had a public cemetery nicknamed "Boot Hill". It required a lot of violent deaths for a cemetery to be called "Boot Hill". The first Boot Hill cemeteries were in the cattle towns of Hays and Dodge City, Kansas.

Many of the cemetery occupants were cowboys who "died with their boots on" in gunfights, beatings, stabbings, and hangings. There are other famous Boot Hills in Tombstone, Arizona and Deadwood, South Dakota. Boot Hill cemeteries began as public cemeteries. The first victim likely arrived at the cemetery with a fatal gunshot wound.

But it wasn't long before gunfighters, claim jumpers, and cowboys were buried next to housewives, farmers, judges, miners, and children. By 1920, most Boot Hill cemeteries were badly neglected. Old wooden grave markers were stolen for souvenirs.

There is a story that when John Clum, the former mayor of Tombstone, visited the town in 1929, he could not find the grave of his wife, Mary, who had been buried in Boot Hill.

Some restoration work has been done at all the Boot Hills. The Pioche Boot Hill cemetery is not unique. It is, instead, an absolutely classic example of a Boot Hill of the American west. It began, and continues to be, the local public cemetery.

Between 1868 and 1875, 269 people were buried here. For the most part, the gunfighters are buried next to the gamblers. People who came to Pioche for the silver strike may have thought they would eventually be going down the road to the next mining discover.

However, hundreds of them are buried in Pioche and could not make that choice. The silence, the smell of sagebrush, and the sounds of the historic tram add to the solemnity of the cemetery. Real people with dreams and aspirations were buried here.