Mount Olivet Cemetery opened to serve the Catholic community of Great Falls and central Montana in 1928. The first Catholic cemetery in the city, Calvary Cemetery, was established a generation earlier in 1896. When the Diocese announced the establishment of Mount Olivet, it also announced that families would be free to move the graves of their loved ones from the older cemetery to the newer cemetery. It is uncertain how many families moved graves and/or grave markers. Calvary Cemetery still exists to the south but is only periodically maintained.

Mount Olivet is well maintained and the trees first planted in the late 1920s have matured and grown to lend dignity and beauty to the property.

Mount Olivet also has a large dedicated section to veterans from the 20th and 21st century conflicts.