Wyuka Cemetery


Wyuka Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In 1890, Lincoln's Bnai Jeshurun Congregation, a Reform congregation, began using a section of Wyuka. In 2007, the Nebraska Holocaust Memorial was established at Wyuka Cemetery.

History

Wyuka Cemetery was established in Lincoln, Nebraska, by an act of the Nebraska Legislature in 1869, which sought to provide a cemetery for the state capital city founded two years prior. The trustees rejected the first cemetery site along Salt Creek to the west of Lincoln due to flooding concerns and instead purchased 80 acres of land east of the city. Wyuka Cemetery has since expanded to over 140 acres between O Street and Vine Street.
The iron fence surrounding the cemetery was originally erected around the University of Nebraska-Lincoln City Campus. The Board of Regents authorized the construction of the fence in 1891, and the fence enclosed the original campus until 1925 when it was removed due to safety concerns because fire engines could not pass through the width of the gates.
Wyuka Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and is considered a prime example of the rural cemetery form.
In 2025, the mural from Pershing Center was installed on the cemetery grounds.

Notable interments