O'Neill Cemetery lies about half a mile north of O'Neill on the west side of Highway 281. Its west edge runs along the highway, its north edge along West Hynes Street, its east edge along North Madison Street and its south edge along West Adams Street. A sign facing the highway in the southern half names the cemetery.
North Jefferson Street runs north and south straight through the middle of the ground, and it marks an old division: Catholics are usually buried between North Jefferson and the highway, Protestants between North Jefferson and North Madison. It is one cemetery, not two, but the two halves have their own character.
The older graves are in the northern half. They were first marked with wooden crosses, and the crosses all burned in a prairie fire — only the iron and cement markers came through. That is why there are stretches between the stones that look empty but are not.
This is by a wide margin the largest burial ground in Holt County.
Around 5,749 memorials have been recorded, which is a record of what has been photographed and indexed rather than a count of everyone buried there.
For burial records or plot enquiries, contact the City of O'Neill, or the Holt County Clerk in O'Neill. Ownership can also be confirmed through the Nebraska Statewide Cemetery Registry at the State Historical Society.