Erie Street Cemetery is Cleveland's oldest existing cemetery. Today downtown Cleveland towers over this peaceful plot of land, which has remained essentially unchanged since it was opened as a burial ground in 1826 at the far edge of the town, whose population was only about 800 at the time. Within the cemetery are the graves of soldiers who served in the Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War, and it is the last resting place of many of the city's early leaders and pioneer families.