Walk up the hill from our RV park at sundown on Monday, November 2, and you’ll find the old Terlingua Cemetery glowing. Hundreds of candles flicker on weathered crosses and rock-piled graves, a bonfire crackles, and neighbors pull up lawn chairs to swap stories about the people who came before them. It’s Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, and in Terlingua it’s one of the most beautiful nights of the year.
A cemetery born of quicksilver
Terlingua exists because of cinnabar, the red ore that gives up mercury, or quicksilver. Miners started arriving in the 1880s, and by 1902 the camp had around 300 laborers, most of them Mexican families who did the hard, dangerous work underground. That same year the cemetery was started at the edge of town.
In 1903 Howard Perry founded the Chisos Mining Company, and Terlingua boomed. By 1922 this little desert town was producing about 40 percent of all the quicksilver mined in the United States, with some 2,000 miners and their families living here. The mines faded through the 1930s, the company went bankrupt in 1942, and mining ended around the close of World War II. The people left. The cemetery stayed.
Today it holds more than 500 graves and memorials, from miners and their children to the artists, river guides and desert rats of modern Terlingua. It’s still an active cemetery, and that’s what makes it special: it isn’t a museum piece, it’s a living place that the community keeps caring for.
What happens on the night
In the days before, locals (often schoolkids from the area) clean the graves, right the candle holders and decorate. Then on November 2nd, people gather at sunset. Families place candles, flowers, photos and favorite foods or drinks on the graves of their loved ones. Visitors are welcome to leave flowers or a memento on one of the community altars near the entrance.
As it gets dark, the bonfire is lit, music starts, and there’s usually a potluck. Some folks dress as skeletons or angels. As one local put it, “It’s not somber, but it is appropriately respectful.” It feels less like a memorial service and more like a family reunion where everyone is invited, including the ones who are no longer here.
How to join in (respectfully)
- Arrive before sunset. The candles are lit as the light fades, and that’s the moment you don’t want to miss.
- Bring a chair, a dish to share and a flashlight. The ground is rocky and uneven, and it gets cool after dark in November.
- Bring flowers or a candle for the community altar if you’d like to remember someone of your own.
- Watch where you step and don’t move anything on the graves. Many are marked only with stones.
- Ask before photographing people at a family’s graveside. Candlelit wide shots of the cemetery are stunning, and nobody minds those.
History in the making: chili week is right behind it
Día de los Muertos kicks off Terlingua’s busiest week. The Original Terlingua International Championship Chili Cookoff runs November 4–7, 2026, and the CASI Terlingua International Chili Championship takes place out at Rancho CASI de los Chisos on Highway 170 the same season (check casichili.net for this year’s schedule). Between the candles, the chili and the dark skies, it’s a great week to be in the ghost town.
Want a front-row seat? Terlingua Ghost Town Rentals & RV Park sits right at the entrance to the ghost town, a short walk from the cemetery. Book your site or rental and come be part of it.