Staked Plains Lodge No. 598, A.F. & A.M., was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas on December 12, 1884, and soon recognized a need for a Masonic cemetery in Big Spring. In May 1885, lodge member George Bauer (1836-1898) donated land at this site for that purpose, and adjacent land was later given for other community graveyards that have become known collectively as Mount Olive Cemetery. The earliest documented grave in the Masonic Cemetery is that of William Howerton (1846-1886), although at least one gravestone bears an earlier date for a grave reinterred here from another location. Those buried here include many Masons and their families, a number of community leaders, Texas and Pacific Railway Company employees, George Bauer, and veterans of World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. Over the years, additional land acquisitions enlarged the cemetery to sixteen acres, with a variety of grave marker sizes and styles visible in the historic graveyard.