The area in which Mount Auburn Memorial Park is located was the crossroads of history for the entire nation. It was here that Father Marquette and Louis Joliet were guided to the Mud Lake portage in what was to become the Village of Stickney, and thus link the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the west by the shortest and best route. Warring Indian tribes considered the Stickney area the richest prize in the west.

The site that is Mount Auburn Memorial Park today was farmland until 1895, the year that preparation began to develop it into a cemetery. The very first burial took place on July 21, 1897.