One of the things that I am absolutely fascinated by is the way cities are built up over their dead. In long-lived cities like Rome or Paris or London, it’s inevitable that cemeteries from the past have been built over and forgotten. In San Francisco, which isn’t even 250 years old, the shortness of memory is more surprising.
Journalist Beth Winegarner shares my obsession with cemeteries. Her newest book is “San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History,” which comes out today. In the book, she looks into the cemeteries that used to lie beneath the Presidio Parade Ground, the Asian Art Museum, what’s now a Target, and much more.
I asked her to tell us about it.
“San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History”
by Beth Winegarner
San Francisco is famous for many things: tech companies like Twitter and Uber, the cacophony of sea lions at Pier 39, the Painted Ladies houses, major earthquakes. It’s also known, especially among locals, for not having any cemeteries.
But what if I told you that settlers established nearly 30 cemeteries in San Francisco between the arrival of Spanish missionaries in the 1770s and 1901, when city leaders banned any new burials within city limits — and that, in the process of moving 150,000 graves to Colma in the early 20th century, tens of thousands of graves were left behind?
My new book, “San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History” traces the history of these burial grounds, from one at Mission Dolores where headstones still mark the grounds, to a pet cemetery hidden beneath a freeway overpass in San Francisco’s Presidio. It includes many graveyards where bodies still rest beneath the ground while residents, workers, and tourists unknowingly pass over them every day.
Writing is one of my favorite ways to connect with the history of a place, and with the place itself. In my first book, “Sacred Sonoma,” I wrote about unusual places in Sonoma County, in Northern California: Locations where people reported ineffable (or chilling) experiences, or hauntings. I dug into local history, including indigenous and settler history, and created a kind of travel guide to these sites, which remains popular to this day.
After almost 20 years living in San Francisco, I felt like I wanted to get to know this place better, and a friend connected me with an amazing digital archive of local newspapers. Out of curiosity I looked for articles about San Francisco’s cemeteries, and began to discover just how many there were, how badly mismanaged they were in the early years of the city, and how many were forgotten.
As San Francisco and its population expanded, graveyards were pushed farther and farther out from the city center. And with so many people coming and going, especially after the Gold Rush, the city had very little institutional memory. A cemetery would be decommissioned, its grave markers (usually wood) removed and sometimes its burials relocated, only to be rediscovered when a new generation wanted to dig sewer lines or build something. Many crews fled job sites because of what they found beneath the soil.
After San Francisco banned burials, residents voted to move the graveyards south to a small town just outside city limits. The majority of burials, probably about 75%, were relocated, but about 25% remain in place. They’re beneath the Lincoln Park Golf Course, the Legion of Honor Museum, the Asian Art Museum, the University of San Francisco, and residential neighborhoods of the Golden Gate Park panhandle, among others.
I became fascinated by these discoveries, and moved by the existence of so many abandoned dead. Once I started learning, I couldn’t help but write, in the hope of sharing this history with others and remembering what so many people had forgotten. It’s helped me understand San Francisco better, and I hope readers find meaning in it, too.
“San Francisco’s Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History” by Beth Winegarner (trade paperback, 172 pages, 60 photographs), with a foreword by Roberto Lovato, author of “Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs and the Revolution in the Americas,” is being published by The History Press on August 28, 2023. You can order a copy from Amazon or directly from The History Press.
To find out more and to see dates for local and online events in connection with the book, click here.
You can also follow Beth on Instagram, where she’s posting images of the old cemeteries.
I am excited to announce that Beth will chat about all things cemeteries with me on October 27 at the San Francisco Columbarium: RSVP here.
Saturday, September 21, 2019 from 9 am-noon San Lorenzo Cemetery Clean Up and Open Day
Usher Street and College Street, San Lorenzo, CA 94580
Drop by to help preserve our local historic cemetery! Bring gloves, rakes, and water. A hat, sunscreen, eye protection, and study shoes are recommended. The cemetery will also be open during this time for the public to visit the grounds and ask questions.
Admission: Free
More info: https://www.haywardareahistory.org/calendar/2019/9/21/cemetery-clean-up-amp-open-day
Sunday, September 22, 2019 from 1-4 pm Spirits of St. Helena Cemetery Discovery Walk
St. Helena Public Cemetery, 2461 Spring Street, St. Helena, CA 94574
Tours depart from the cemetery’s front gate at 1 and 2 pm. The stories of French and Swiss winemakers, portrayed by St. Helena High School Drama Club students, will be featured during the St. Helena Historical Society’s 17th annual “Spirits of St. Helena” Cemetery Discovery Walk. Each tour will visit selected gravesites on the St. Helena Cemetery grounds. Tours take place rain or shine. Please wear comfortable walking shoes. More info: 707-967-5502 or email shstory@shstory.org; visit shstory.org; or find the St. Helena Historical Society on Facebook.
Admission: $10
More info: https://shstory.org/events/#spirits-cemetery-walk
Sunday, September 22, 2019 from 4:30-7 pm Evening Hike to Rose Hill Cemetery
Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve: Upper Parking Lot, 37.958359, -121.86326, Antioch, CA
Long ago, miners left their mark on these hills. Take a hike to historic Rose Hill Cemetery to learn their tales of spirit, heroism, tragedy, and endurance.
Parking fee: $5. Tour: Free
More Info: http://apm.activecommunities.com/ebparks/Activity_Search/26333
Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 10 am Food Tour of Mountain View Cemetery
5000 Piedmont Ave, Oakland CA 94611
Docent-led tour of Oakland’s beautiful Mountain View Cemetery by Barbara Gibson & Jane Leroe, who will focus on the cemetery’s connection to food.
Admission: Free
More info: https://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/events/upcoming-events
Friday, October 4, 2019 at 5:30 pm, 6:15 pm, 7 pm, 7:45 pm
Saturday, October 05, 2019 at 5:30 pm, 6:15 pm, 7 pm, 7:45 pm 17th Annual Sebastopol Cemetery Walk
Meet at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 500 Robinson Road (off Bodega Ave.), Sebastopol, CA
The evening begins with a soup, salad, antipasto, and bread supper held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Sebastopol. Plenty of parking is available at the church. Please arrive at least 15 minutes before your showtime. After supper, your group will be led to Sebastopol Memorial Lawn Cemetery by a tour guide, accompanied by the very popular Hubbub Club, who describe themselves as “a cross between a New Orleans marching band and a Fellini movie.” At the cemetery, your tour guide will lead you through the luminary-lit route.
Admission: $45.00 ($48.24 w/service fee)
Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4290773
Saturday, October 5, 2019 from 9 am-noon Volunteer at the Presidio Pet Cemetery
667 McDowell Avene, San Francisco, CA 94129
The Presidio Pet Cemetery is the final resting place for hundreds of the faithful companions of the military families who lived at the Presidio when it was an Army post. The pet cemetery has been closed off for almost 10 years in order to protect it during the Doyle Drive replacement project, but it will reopen to the public very soon. Help us get the pet cemetery in tip-top condition by joining us to paint its brand-new fence!
Admission: This volunteer event is free and open to all ages. Space is very limited, so registration is required. For questions, please email volunteer@presidiotrust.gov.
More info: https://www.presidio.gov/events/volunteer-at-presidio-pet-cemetery
Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 10 am Exploring Mountain View Cemetery
5000 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611
Docent-led tour Oakland’s lovely Mountain View Cemetery by Barbara Gibson.
Admission: Free
More info: https://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/events/upcoming-events
Saturday, October 12, 2019 from 10 am-2 pm Alhambra Cemetery Potter’s Field Clean Up
211 Foster Street, Martinez, CA 94553
The Alhambra Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1851, has a rich history. Pay your respects to the many people buried in the cemetery’s potter’s field by helping to clean up debris and remove weeds from the graves of those who built our communities: laborers, restaurant staff, railroad workers, farmers, and veterans. We will also prepare the Chinese Funerary Burner site for future excavation and restoration. Wear comfortable clothes, gloves, and protective eyewear. Lunch for volunteers is generously provided by E Clampus Vitus.
Admission: Free
More info: https://www.martinezcemetery.org/2019-fall-cemetery-cleanup.html
Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 11 am Trolley Tour of the Eastside, Westside, and Hillside of Cypress Lawn
1370 El Camino Real, Colma, CA 94014
Docent Terry Hamburg guides a tour of beautiful Cypress Lawn that will last about two hours and includes refreshments. The state-of-the-art trolley is heated and air-conditioned. Each tour will have a $50 raffle prize.
Admission: Free. Trolley capacity is 24 riders, so RSVPs are required. Call 650.667.7404 for reservations.
More info: https://www.cypresslawn.com/events/2019/10/trolley-tours-general-excursion-eastside-westside-hillside-2/
Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 6-7 pm Halloween Costume Parade 2019
Meet at Sterling Park Recreation Center, 427 F Street, Colma, CA 94014
Join us on this Halloween Adventure as we parade and trick or treat from the Sterling Park Recreation Center to the Italian Cemetery. The parade will begin promptly at 6:15 pm at Sterling Park. Don’t forget to wear your best Halloween costume.
Please register by October 9th, 2019 to ensure we have enough goodies for everyone! For more information: (650) 985-5678.
Admission: Colma resident: $1 per youth
Non-resident: $5 per youth
More info: https://www.colma.ca.gov/event/halloween-costume-parade-2019/
Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 7-9 pm Cinema at the Italian Cemetery
Italian Cemetery, 540 F Street, Colma, CA 94014
Join us for an evening under the stars. Bring your blankets and pack a picnic for the family. Movie screening will be held outdoors on the Italian Cemetery Mausoleum lawn. We will host fun pre-movie activities, including music and a kids’ craft station. We will have a small snack bar on site, serving popcorn, candy, and hot chocolate.
Admission: free. Please call (650) 985-5678 to sign up and find out what the movie is.
More info: https://www.colma.ca.gov/event/cinema-at-the-cemetery-2019/
Saturday, October 19, 2019 from 9 am-noon San Lorenzo Cemetery Clean Up and Open Day
Usher Street and College Street, San Lorenzo, CA 94580
Drop by to help preserve our local historic cemetery. Bring gloves, rakes, and water. A hat, sunscreen, eye protection, and study shoes are recommended. The cemetery will also be open during this time for the public to visit the grounds and ask questions.
More info: https://www.haywardareahistory.org/calendar/2019/10/19/cemetery-clean-up-amp-open-day
Saturday, October 19, 2019 at 9 am-noon Volunteer at the Presidio Pet Cemetery
667 McDowell Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94129
The Presidio Pet Cemetery is the final resting place for hundreds of the faithful companions of the military families who lived at the Presidio when it was an Army post. The pet cemetery has been closed off for almost 10 years in order to protect it during the Doyle Drive replacement project, but it will reopen to the public very soon. Help us get the pet cemetery in tip-top condition.
Admission: This volunteer event is free and open to all ages. Space is very limited, so registration is required. For questions, please email volunteer@presidiotrust.gov.
More info: https://www.presidio.gov/events/volunteer-at-presidio-pet-cemetery-2019-10-19
Saturday, October 19, 2019 at 10 am History Hike from Bothe-Napa Valley State Park to Bale Grist Mill State Historical Park
3801 St. Helena Highway, Calistoga, CA 94515
In the past, millers, preachers, teachers, and survivors shared a common thread in the history of the Bale Grist Mill and Bothe-Napa Valley State Park. Discover their connection on this hike and learn a bit about natural history, too. You will be led by a park naturalist to the pioneer cemetery and the site of Napa’s first church. After a 1.2-mile hike, you will arrive at the Bale Grist Mill during Old Mill Days, where you can see how pioneers milled grain in the 1800s and join in the harvest-inspired festivities.
Admission: free
More info: https://napaoutdoors.org/parks/bothe-napa-valley-state-park/3rd-saturday-hikes/
Saturday, October 19, 2019 at 10 am Symbolism Tour of Mountain View Cemetery
5000 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611
Docent Sandy Rauch leads a tour focusing on the memorial symbolism in Oakland’s lovely Mountain View Cemetery.
Admission: Free
More info: https://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/events/upcoming-events
Saturday, October 19, 2019 from 10:30 am-noon Petalumans of Yesteryear present their annual Cypress Hill Cemetery Walk
430 Magnolia Ave, Petaluma, CA 94952
The annual “The Lives of the Petaluma Pioneers” fundraising tour begins at the Cypress Hill Cemetery office parking lot. After a greeting by Isaac Wickersham (buried here), groups will be escorted to the gravesites of Captain Tom Baylis, Isaac Garrett Wickersham, Mr. And Mrs. Edward Spalding Lippitt , Mrs. Henry (Addie) Atwater, the McNear family, & William Howard Pepper. The tour concludes inside the Cypress Hill columbarium designed by Brainerd Jones, as narrated by Lyman C. Byce (also buried here).
Admission: $15 + service fee
Tickets: https://cemeterytour2019.brownpapertickets.com/
Friday, October 25, 2019 from 7–10:30 pm Ghosts of Dublin Pioneer Cemetery tour
Dublin Heritage Park & Museums, 6600 Donlon Way, Dublin, CA 94568
Event is recommended for ages 8 and up. Cemetery tours departing at 10 pm are reserved for 14+. Take a flashlight tour through Dublin’s historic Pioneer Cemetery, where Dublin’s buried past comes alive. Hear haunting stories of ghosts thought to be lurking in Dublin, including reports of recent findings by local paranormal researchers. See ghostly images of long-dead pioneers in Old St. Raymond Church. The tour includes a walk through the Kolb House, where you may have to look twice at the eerie shadows in the corners. Make your way through the dark and creaky 162-year-old Murray School House with only your flashlight to guide you. Fortify yourself with hot cider and cookies in the Sunday School Barn. Tours last approximately 1 hour. Wear comfortable walking shoes and dress warmly. Rain or shine.
Saturday, October 26, 2019 at 10 am Historic Irvington Cemetery Tour
41001 Chapel Way, Fremont, CA 94538
Join us for a tour of Irvington Memorial Cemetery, founded in 1845 — before the Gold Rush! Hear and discuss the stories of local pioneers. The tour starts promptly at 10 am.
Admission: free, with donations to support the Washington Township Museum of Local History gladly accepted.
More info: https://museumoflocalhistory.org/
Saturday, October 26, 2019 from 10 am–5 pm Ghost Tour: Shipwrecks of Point Reyes
Bear Valley Picnic Area, 1 Bear Valley Road, Point Reyes Station, CA
Do the ghosts of doomed sailors haunt Point Reyes’ treacherous shores? We’ll pay our respects at a historic cemetery and travel out to the sites of myriad maritime tragedies, seeking personal connection to long lost ships and those who wait to tell their stories from the bottom of the sea. This class will be instructed by Frank Binney. Youth ages 12 and up are welcome with adult supervision.
Saturday, October 26, 2019 at noon-3pm 14th Annual Pumpkin Festival at Mountain View Cemetery
5000 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611
Celebrate Halloween at our fun-filled pumpkin patch meadow, with free pumpkins, activities, onsite food trucks, and treats for the kids!
Admission: free
More info: https://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/events/upcoming-events
Friday, November 1, 2019 at 10 am until Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 5 pm Bouquets to the Dead 2019
90 First Street W, Sonoma, California 95476
Local artists and folk honor their dead and our ancestors at Sonoma Mountain Cemetery for Dia de los Muertos, All Saints Day, and Samhain with a processional from the square. Come one and come all!
Admission: Free
More info: https://allevents.in/sonoma/bouquets-to-the-dead-2019/200017964259018
Friday, November 1 to Saturday, November 30, 2019 Fall Foliage Display at Mountain View Cemetery
5000 Piedmont Ave, Oakland CA 94611
Stop by and admire the colorful leaves of our redwood and oak trees.
Admission: Free
More info: https://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/events/upcoming-events
Saturday, November 2, 2019 from 10 am-noon Walking Tour of Old St. Mary’s Cemetery
Meet at the St. Joseph Family Center, 7950 Church Street, Gilroy, CA 95020
The walking tour of Gilroy’s historic Old Saint Mary Cemetery lasts approximately two hours. Reservations are recommended but not required. To make reservations or for more information call the Gilroy Museum at (408) 846-0446.
Admission: free
More info: https://www.gilroyhistoricalsociety.org/calendar/2019/11/2/walking-tour-old-saint-mary-cemetery
Saturday, November 2, 2019 from 10 am-1:30 pm Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead Mountain Cemetery Tour
Meet at the Overlook Trail Kiosk, 90 First Street West, Sonoma, CA
Please join us for a lively, informative walk through our historic Mountain Cemetery with amateur historian Fred Allebach. Meet cowboys and Indians, ranchers and real estate tycoons, farmers and farriers, carpenters and stone masons, quarrymen, grocers, butchers, bakers, maybe even a candlestick maker.
Admission: $35
Tickets: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07egi5n2nme0c94270&oseq=&c=&ch=
Saturday, November 2, 2019 from 12:30 pm-1:30pm Día de los Muertos
Celebrate the dead with an all-ages festival throughout Downtown Santa Cruz, created in partnership with Senderos. Experience vibrant dance performances. Get your face painted. Indulge in delicious food. Join in on a procession to enjoy more dance, music, and outdoor altars at Evergreen Cemetery. The event will be MC’d by Adriana Frederick-Sutton from Univision. More details are coming.
Admission: free
More info: https://santacruzmah.org/events/d%C3%ADa-2019/2019/11/02
Sunday, November 3, 2019 from 11-3 pm Haunting Bike Tour of Colma Cemeteries
Bring your bike and meet at the Colma BART Station at 11 am, then take a spirited tour of several massive cemeteries where famous San Franciscans are buried. We’ll visit Woodlawn, Home of Peace and Hills of Eternity, Cypress Lawn, and Holy Cross. We return to Colma or South SF BART together at end of tour. RSVP at shaping@foundsf.org
Admission: We request a $20-50 sliding scale donation for our bike tours (but are flexible and you can pay less–or more!–as you see fit), benefiting Shaping San Francisco.
More info: http://www.shapingsf.org/tours.html#colma
Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 11 am Kings All – Railroaders Miners & Men of the Forest
Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, 1370 El Camino Real, Colma, CA 94014
Professor Michael Svanevik guides a trolley tour of historic Cypress Lawn that will last about two hours and includes refreshments. The state-of-the-art trolley is heated and air-conditioned. Each tour will have a $50 raffle prize.
Admission: Free. Trolley capacity is 24 riders. RSVPs are required. Call 650.667.7404 for reservations.
More info: https://www.cypresslawn.com/events/2019/11/trolley-tours-kings-railroaders-miners-men-forest/
Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 10 am Exploring Mountain View Cemetery
5000 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611
Docent-led tour Oakland’s lovely Mountain View Cemetery by Jane Leroe.
Admission: Free
More info: https://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/events/upcoming-events
Saturday, November 23, 2019 at 10 am Olmsted & Oakland Notables Tour of Mountain View Cemetery
5000 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland CA 94611
Tour of Mountain View Cemetery led by docent Chris Pattillo, focusing on its design by Frederick Law Olmstead and the Oakland notables buried here.
Admission: Free
More info: https://www.mountainviewcemetery.org/events/upcoming-events
Canceled due to restoration work:
Saturday, October 12, 2019 from noon-2 pm Historic Mare Island Navy Cemetery Tour
Saturday, November 9, 2019 at noon-2 pm Historic Mare Island Navy Cemetery Tour
Sunday, September 23 at 1-3 pm Spirits of St. Helena Cemetery Walk
St. Helena Public Cemetery
2461 Spring St, St Helena, CA 94574
This is the St. Helena Historical Society’s 16th Annual Cemetery Tour, featuring stories of German decedents, including Charles Krug and Jacob Schram. St. Helena High School drama students, under the direction of Patti Coyle, will be acting out scenarios from the lives of the deceased and their families. 1 to 3 pm at the St. Helena Cemetery. 967-5502 or shstory.org.
Saturday, September 29 from 9-1 pm San Lorenzo Cemetery Clean Up and Open Day
Usher Street and College Street, San Lorenzo, CA 94580
Drop by to help preserve our local historic cemetery! Bring gloves, rakes, and water. The cemetery will also be open during this time for the public to visit the grounds and ask questions. http://www.haywardareahistory.org/calendar/2018/9/29/san-lorenzo-cemetery-clean-up-and-open-day
Saturday, October 6 from 8:30-10 am Yountville Veterans Home & Cemetery Photo Walk
100 California Drive, Yountville, CA 94599
Imagine you and your camera being guided on a historical photowalk tour in the heart of Napa Valley by our nation’s veterans. They will be your “imagery guide” to the oldest and largest of eight California homes. The home was established in 1884 by veterans of the Civil and Mexican American Wars. The walking tour will include: The 1918 Armistice Chapel that was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, The home’s cemetery where nearly 6ooo men and women have been laid to rest, including four Medal of Honors, and the Arboretum that includes trees from all over the world. After your tour, you will have the opportunity to re-group in the Tug McGraw Foundation’s Brain Food Garden, enjoy delights provided by the foundation and chat about your images! Bring comfortable shoes and water. The entire campus is wheelchair accessible. https://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/the-historical-yountville-veterans-home/
Friday & Saturday, October 19-20, beginning at 7 pm Lantern Tours of Old City Cemetery
1000 Broadway, Sacramento, CA 95818
Tickets are $40 and should be purchased in advance. This will sell out.
Tour the tombstones in “They Had It Coming,” the theme of the 2018 Lantern Tours. There will be five tours per night, beginning at 7 p.m. and every half hour thereafter. The evening will begin with period music, games of chance, and encounters with some characters out of the city’s past. On the tour, meet other eternal residents who will tell their tales of crimes of passion, rash judgment, and just rewards. The experience ends with a stage show of merry cemetery murderesses dancing, singing and telling their own stories. The price includes all this and refreshments. Proceeds support cemetery preservation. http://events.sacbee.com/performer.aspx?perf_id=2528342
Friday, October 19 from 7–10:30 pm Ghosts of Dublin Pioneer Cemetery tour
Dublin Heritage Park & Museums, 6600 Donlon Way, Dublin, CA 94568
Tickets are $14 and should be purchased in advance. This will sell out.
Take a flashlight tour through Dublin’s historic Pioneer Cemetery, where Dublin’s buried past comes alive. Hear haunting stories of ghosts thought to be lurking in Dublin, including reports of recent findings by local paranormal researchers. See ghostly images of long dead pioneers in Old St. Raymond Church. https://patch.com/california/dublin/calendar/event/20181019/394748/ghosts-of-dublin-flashlight-tour-2018-pioneer-cemetery-dublin
Sunday, October 21 at 1:30 pm Tour of Mountain View Cemetery
5000 Piedmont Ave, Oakland CA 94611
Tickets are $18.
Every visit to Mountain View Cemetery is like a trip back in time. It is like shaking hands with railroad builder Charles Crocker, admiring the brushwork of Yosemite landscape painter Thomas Hill, and hearing architect Julia Morgan rhapsodize about her designs for Hearst Castle. https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/events/details?event_id=27734
Wednesday, October 24 at 6:30-7:45 pm Hunters Tour of Alhambra Cemetery
211 Foster St, Martinez, CA 94553
The Alhambra Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1851, has stunning views of the Carquinez Strait and a rich history. A tour guide will introduce you to families with names you know and some you don’t. You’ll learn more about local war heroes, personalities, politicians and a most creative caretaker. Tours are designed to enlighten, not frighten. Wear sturdy comfortable shoes and dress for the weather. Sorry, no children please! Bring a flashlight. https://patch.com/california/martinez/calendar/event/20181024/398582/alhambra-cemetery-halloween-full-moon-tour-martinez
Friday, October 26 from 7–10:30 pm Ghosts of Dublin Pioneer Cemetery tour
Dublin Heritage Park & Museums, 6600 Donlon Way, Dublin, CA 94568
Tickets are $14 and should be purchased in advance. This will sell out.
Take a flashlight tour through Dublin’s historic Pioneer Cemetery, where Dublin’s buried past comes alive. Hear haunting stories of ghosts thought to be lurking in Dublin, including reports of recent findings by local paranormal researchers. See ghostly images of long dead pioneers in Old St. Raymond Church. https://patch.com/california/dublin/calendar/event/20181019/394748/ghosts-of-dublin-flashlight-tour-2018-pioneer-cemetery-dublin
Saturday, October 27 at 10 am Tour of Mt. Olivet Cemetery
270 Los Ranchitos Rd, San Rafael, CA 94903
Join us to visit the burial sites of many of the founding pioneer families of Marin County. Some who found their final place here led scandalous lives but now rest peacefully. From James Miller, founding father, to Barbara Graham, criminal, all have a story to tell. https://marinhistory.org/event-2960661
Saturday, October 27 at 7:30 pm Nighttime Walking Tour of Cypress Lawn Memorial Park
1363 El Camino Real, Colma, CA 94014
Meet docent Terry Hamburg at the Nobel Chapel for the annual nighttime walking tour. http://www.cypresslawnheritagefoundation.org/events/walking-tours/
Sunday, October 28 from 10 am–5 pm Ghost Tour: Shipwrecks of Point Reyes
Starts at the Historic Life-Saving Service Cemetery
18618-19084 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
For youth, ages 12 and up, with adult supervision.
Tickets are $40.
Do the ghosts of doomed sailors haunt Point Reyes’ treacherous shores? We’ll pay our respects at a historic cemetery and travel out to the sites of myriad maritime tragedies, seeking personal connection to long lost ships and those who wait to tell their stories from the bottom of the sea. http://www.ptreyes.org/camps-classes-programs/field-institute/classes/ghost-tour-shipwrecks-point-reyes-1
Sunday, October 28 from noon-3 pm Cycles of History: Haunted Colma
$15-50 sliding scale donation (but we are flexible and you can pay less–or more!–as you see fit), benefiting Shaping San Francisco. Please RSVP to shaping@foundsf.org or 415.881.7579.
Meet at the Colma BART Station at 12 noon and then take a spirited tour of several massive cemeteries where famous San Franciscans are buried. Visit Woodlawn, Home of Peace and Hills of Eternity, Cypress Lawn, and Holy Cross. Return to Colma or South SF BART together at the end of the tour. Bring water and a snack. https://sfbike.org/event/cycles-of-history-haunting-tour-of-colma-cemeteries/
Wednesday, October 31 at 6:30-7:45pm Halloween Tour of Alhambra Cemetery
211 Foster St, Martinez, CA 94553
The Alhambra Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1851, has stunning views of the Carquinez Strait and a rich history. A tour guide will introduce you to families with names you know and some you don’t. You’ll learn more about local war heroes, personalities, politicians and a most creative caretaker. Tours are designed to enlighten, not frighten. Wear sturdy comfortable shoes and dress for the weather. Sorry, no children please! Bring a flashlight. https://patch.com/california/martinez/calendar/event/20181024/398582/alhambra-cemetery-halloween-full-moon-tour-martinez
Oak Hill Memorial Park
300 Curtner Avenue, San Jose, California 95125
Phone: (408) 297-2447 Officially Founded: 1847 Size: more than 300 acres Number of interments: approximately 20,000
Founded on November 29, 1777, San Jose was the first secular settlement in Northern California. Its original purpose was to raise crops for San Francisco’s Presidio. The first settlers in the pueblo of San Jose were Spanish soldiers who came up from Mexico with Juan Bautista de Anza.
As early as 1839, pueblo officials had started burying their dead under oak trees on the northern side of the San Bautista Hills. By the time surveyor Chester Lyman and Captain William Fisher of Rancho Laguna Seca chose a tract nearby for an official graveyard, none of the original markers remained. Lyman measured 25-1/4 acres for the Protestant and Catholic cemetery, along with four acres for a potter’s field.
The first recorded burial in this graveyard took place on November 22, 1849 when one of the children of Captain Julian Hanks was laid to rest. That wooden marker is thought to have been destroyed when a grass fire swept across the graveyard.
The burying ground was simply called the graveyard until December 6, 1858, when it was finally designated Oak Hill Cemetery. The name changed again in 1933, when the city of San Jose sold it to A. J. Hocking. He renamed it Oak Hill Memorial Park. Under the Hocking family management, a crematorium and the Parkview and Azalea Terraces mausoleums were built and the Garden of the Apostles and Chapel of Oaks were added. The cemetery was sold to a private corporation in 1986. Throughout the years, land has been added several times. Currently, the cemetery encompasses more than 300 acres.
Ygnacio Bernal, grandson of Joaquin Bernal, was born on his grandfather’s Rancho Santa Teresa land grant in Santa Clara County in 1841. Ygnacio spoke four languages and fathered nine children with Jesusita Patron, who lies beside him now.
Maggie Caldwell Fox was the first child born to Anglo-American immigrants who came overland to Santa Clara County. She was born in a damp barn at Mission Santa Clara in February 1847 and died in 1885.
Representatives of almost every early emigrant party — Murphy, Townsend, Schallenberger, Reed, Donner, Branham, etc. — rest at Oak Hill, in the oldest secular burial ground in continual use in California. The first overland party brought Josiah Belden, Grove Cook, Peter Springer, and Charles Weber to the Santa Clara Valley in 1841.
Three years later, Dr. John Townsend led the first party of wagons to come over the Sierra mountains in 1844. He was the first licensed physician in San Francisco, where he also served as the city’s fourth alcalde (mayor during the Mexican era) before he caught Gold Fever. Townsend was also a founding member of the San Jose Lodge 10 of the Free and Accepted Masons. While nursing victims of a cholera epidemic in San Jose in 1850, he and his wife Elizabeth perished.
Several survivors of the Reed-Donner Party wagon train are buried at Oak Hill. James Frazier Reed was one of the party’s leaders, until he killed a teamster on the Humboldt River. The group banished him, so he went on alone to Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento, California. Once he heard the Donner Party was trapped in the Sierras by an early snowfall, Reed attempted to return to the party to resupply them, but was unable to reach them. He returned to the mountains the following February to help with the rescue. His wife and stepchildren survived the winter. After they settled in San Jose, Reed donated $34,000 in 1849 to provide a capitol building for the first State Legislature when the state capitol was San Jose. Reed’s daughter Patty, who was 8 at the time of the Donner Party rescue, took part in the 1918 dedication of the Pioneer Monument at Donner Lake.
George Donner Jr. was ten when his parents died in the Sierras during the winter of 1846-7. San Franciscans bought a lot for the boy, who grew up to be a grain dealer and joined San Jose’s volunteer fire department. He died in 1874 and is buried with his four-year-old son Albert. For many years, George’s grave was unmarked, but a large granite monument to the Donners stands there now.
Also formerly buried in an unmarked grave is Anna Maria Bascom, who came to San Jose with her husband (another physician) via wagon train in 1849. She sewed together sheets of denim to make walls for a school and a church. Later, she ran a boarding house where all the politicians stayed while San Jose served as the state capitol. The Bascoms brought the first piano to San Jose. Several sources describe how Native Americans and those of Spanish heritage stood around outside the house to listen to the piano being played. Bascom Road was named for them.
Joseph E. Rucker and his brother drove 200 cows from Missouri to California in 1852. The cattle, which they’d bought for $10 a head, sold for $150-200 each in California. Joseph invested his earnings in real estate. His son Samuel, also buried here, served in the California legislature and was elected mayor of San Jose in 1889.
Mountain Charlie, whose real name was Charles H. McKiernan, built most of the early roads into the Santa Cruz Mountains and ran a stagecoach line between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. He controlled lumber mills, orchards, vineyards, and raised sheep and cattle. On May 8, 1854, Charlie got between a mama grizzly bear and her two cubs. Although she crushed the front of his skull in her jaws, he survived the attack. For the rest of his life, he wore his hat pulled low to disguise this disfigurement. He died of stomach cancer 38 years after the attack. Charlie’s grave is a California Registered Point of Historical Interest. The plaque remembers him as the “most colorful of all characters in the Santa Cruz Mountains.”
Belle Butler, who staked the claim for the Mizpah Mine — the richest silver mine in Nevada — sold her stake for $338,000. She is buried under a large heavy granite pillar with her daughter Lotty. During her life, Belle was known as the Angel of Charity.
In 1852, Frenchman Charles Lefranc planted grapes along the Guadalupe River on land that became New Almaden Vineyard. His vineyard combined cuttings he’d brought from France with cuttings from General Vallejo’s vineyards north of San Francisco. By 1862, Lefranc was producing wine commercially. In 1887, he came out of his cellar to find a team of horses running amok. While trying to stop them, he was trampled. His injuries led to his death several days later.
Paul Masson emigrated to the US in 1878. He worked in Lefranc’s vineyards and married Lefranc’s daughter Louise. Masson and his brother-in-law Henry experimented with bubbling wines. By the end of the 19th century, Masson was America’s premier champagne producer. The Paul Masson winery in Saratoga is now known as the Mountain Winery, which offers an annual summer concert series.
Jacob Rich, native of Poland, came to San Jose in 1853 and opened a tailor shop. In 1877, he established a public horsecar line. Sixteen years later, he controlled 17 miles of electric streetcar lines. He helped to organize Temple Bickur Cholin, San Jose’s original Jewish synagogue.
Judge David Belden moved to San Jose in 1871, in time to be appointed to the new Twentieth Judicial District. He presided over the trial of bandit Tiburcio Vasquez in January 1875. Afterward, Belden served on the State Supreme Court until his death in 1888.
German immigrant Henry Rengstorff owned six farms and orchards around Santa Clara County. He raised grain, hay, and fruit. The thoroughfare in Mountain View that bears his name used to run to Rengstorff’s Landing, one of many landings along the bay. His monument combines a gothic aedicule over a shrouded urn.
Charles H. Harmon came west at the age of 15 and soon began to paint. His panorama of the Santa Clara Valley orchards in bloom was displayed at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Some of his paintings have been collected by the San Jose Historical Museum.
Internationally known painter Astley D. M. Cooper painted Native Americans and Western scenes. His huge canvases adorned saloons during the 31 years he lived in San Jose. Several paintings are in the collection of the San Jose Historical Museum. His painting “Trilby” sold for $62,000.
Frank H. Holmes and his brother Arthur were the first to drive an automobile in — and back out — of Yosemite. They made the trip in 1901 in Frank’s Stanley Steamer. Frank built automobiles in San Jose until the 1906 quake destroyed his factory. After that, he concentrated on growing and packing prunes.
Mary Ward became California’s first registered female embalmer in 1890. She and her husband William established their mortuary in 1888. She died in 1937.
Mrs. Catherine Smith advocated suffrage for all adult citizens, regardless of gender. She founded the San Jose Woman’s Club in 1894 and served as its president for ten years. She died in 1904. Her family monument is a square monument topped with a shrouded urn.
Buried in an unmarked grave is Carrie Stevens Walter, who wrote and edited the Santa Clara, a monthly magazine of short stories and essays. In 1900, she was the only woman on the Save the Redwoods Committee of the newly formed Sempervirens Club, which established Big Basin State Park and saved redwoods throughout the state. She lies beside her 19-year-old son in the Walter family plot.
In 1909, Charles David Herrold opened the world’s first broadcasting station in San Jose. His station took the call letters KWQ in 1921, before becoming KCBS. He died in 1948.
Much of this information was inspired by from A Walk Through the Past: San Jose’s Oak Hill Memorial Park. My review is here. You can buy your own copy on Amazon here.
Just a pretty view in Oak Hill, with the hills south of San Jose in the distance.
Tulocay Cemetery
411 Coombsville Road
Napa, California 94559 Telephone: 707-252-4727 GPS: 38.297821°N 122.271808°W Established: 1859 Size: 49 acres (only 30 of which are developed) Number of interments: More than 30,000
In 1841, California-born Don Cayetano Juarez received the 88,000-acre Tulucay Rancho from General Mariano Vallejo, the last governor of Mexican Alta California. Juarez used the land grant along the east side of the Napa River to ranch cattle. His 1845 adobe home still stands in the city of Napa and, after serving as a restaurant for many years, is currently being restored.
In December 1858, at the first meeting the new cemetery committee, Don Cayetano donated almost 50 acres of his land to the people of Napa for Tulocay Cemetery. (Apparently, the spelling was changed in the process.) In return, Juarez received a token payment of five dollars. Upon his sudden death in 1883, he was buried not far from the cemetery’s gate. His wife Maria Higuera Juarez joined him in 1890.
A little more than a mile away from the Juarez adobe, the cemetery stands east of downtown Napa on Coombsville Road. Called “one of Northern California’s most beautiful final resting places,” the cemetery spans Napa Valley history from the Mexican government through the Gold Rush and into the modern wine-making era.
Salvador Vallejo, sometimes called the Last Conquistador, was the brother of General Mariano Vallejo. The General gave his brother two land grants in Napa Valley, on which Salvador built three homes. As the head of the militia in Sonoma, Salvador served as his brother’s assistant. They were both captured during the Bear Flag Rebellion in Sonoma in June 1846 and imprisoned for two months at Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento. Salvador died in 1876 and was buried in Tulocay with his wife Maria Luz.
The Coombs mausoleum stands in the shadow of the Tulocay Memorial Mausoleum.
Nathan Coombs, who came to Napa Valley in 1845, purchased some land from Salvador Vallejo. Coombs went on to found the city of Napa in 1847. He was the first of four generations to serve in the state legislature. He owned a stagecoach line with Sam Brannan and also raised racehorses. When Coombs died of consumption in 1877, 150 carriages rode in his cortege and 50 local pioneers marched. He was buried in the Coombs family mausoleum, beneath the statue of an angel called Resurrection. The angel had been imported from Italy for $1000.
Tulocay’s most important permanent resident is Mary Ellen Pleasant. Despite having been born enslaved, she went on to become a millionaire known as the Mother of Civil Rights in California. After she came to San Francisco in 1852, Pleasant owned several successful boarding houses and laundries and served as the terminus of the Underground Railroad, providing jobs and housing to people escaping the South. Pleasant was one of the financiers of John Brown’s attack on the Armory at Harper’s Ferry in 1859.
In addition, Pleasant supported the 1863 Right of Testimony bill that gave blacks the right to testify in California courts. In 1868, she sued the Northbeach and Mission Railroad in the California State Supreme Court for the right of blacks to have equal access to public transit. Her house at Octavia and Bush was known as the Black City Hall. Toward the end of her life, she lost her fortune after testifying in the divorce proceedings against millionaire senator William Sharon. He called her “Mammy” Pleasant in the press. That disparaging nickname stuck, despite Pleasant’s protests.
Although she died in poverty in San Francisco in 1904, Pleasant was buried in a friend’s grave plot near Tulocay’s front fence. A group now called the San Franciscan African American Historical and Cultural Society placed an impressive marker by R. Alan Williams there in 1965. The metal sculpture depicts “a forceful stand, holding a body of purpose,” according to the artist. The white Sierra granite slab was added in June 2011.
Other historic figures at Tulocay:
In 1846, scout and mountain man James Clyman warned the Donner Party not to take the Hastings cut-off over the Sierra Nevadas. Clyman noted that the route was barely passable on foot and the wagons would never be able to make it. Unfortunately, he was right. Clyman kept a diary, which has survived.
Lilburn William Boggs, former Governor of Missouri, came to California in a wagon trail in 1846. He served as alcalde of Sonoma, then went to the California state constitutional convention as a delegate in 1850. Panthea, his second wife, was a granddaughter of Daniel Boone’s. Boggs died in Napa in 1860.
John Patchett came to Napa in 1850. He planted grapes and became the first commercial winemaker in the Valley in 1858. That first year, Patchett used a cider press to extract the grape juice. Somehow, the title of first winemaker was given to Charles Krug (who had apprenticed in Patchett’s winery). Patchett’s last vintage was 1865.
The Sloopers monument
A tall monument marked with a sailing ship marks the graves of Jacob and Serena Anderson. Jacob Anderson Slogvik served on the sloop Restauration, which brought the first group of Norwegian immigrants to the US in October 1825. (Norwegian Americans consider it the Norwegian Mayflower.) Traveling on the Restauration was 11-year-old Serine Tormodsdatter, who married Jacob six years later. They came to California in 1854 by wagon train. The monument was placed on their graves in May 2004 by their descendants. The Norwegian stone honors them as the “Sloopers” who came the farthest west.
Emanuel Manasse, a German immigrant, joined Napa’s B.F. Sawyer Company in 1871. At the time, the company only used the sheep’s wool and wasted the sheepskins. Manasse pioneered a process for tanning sheepskins which made them waterproof. Later he developed a process to waterproof cowhide. Manasse’s so-called Napa Tan process revolutionized the tannery business.
John Greenwood was a retired sea captain who had a ranch in Napa. In February 1891, robbers attacked Greenwood and his wife Lucina, killing her. When the thieves were eventually captured, Billy Rowe, the murderer, was hanged in Napa’s Courthouse Square in 1897. Supposedly, Rowe haunts the Old Napa Courthouse at night. Lucina’s ghost has been blamed for computer glitches at Doctors Insurance Company, which stands on the site of her former home.
Re-enactors stand beside the Grand Army of the Republic monument in Tulocay Cemetery, June 2015.
The Grand Army of the Republic (Union veterans of the civil war) purchased a lot in Tulocay Cemetery in 1914. The Ladies Relief Corps, the women’s auxiliary group, paid for the monument, which was dedicated on Memorial Day 1915, the 50th anniversary of the end of the war.
Another Civil War veteran is buried beneath a marker labeled “Here Sleeps the Brave.” Lt. John Tuthill served in the Ram Fleet on the Mississippi River, using a heavily armed steamboat to ram Confederate ships to clear the Mississippi for shipping. Tuthill developed tuberculosis (called consumption in those days) and came to California for his health after the war. He died in 1868.
William Franklin Brandt was the last Civil War veteran buried in Tulocay. He died in Napa on April 9, 1937. After he was born in 1842 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, his family moved to Iowa, where he enlisted at the age of 20. He served in Company F, 12th US Infantry for three years, fighting at Gettysburg. He met President Lincoln on a battlefield at one point and was lavish in his praise of the president afterward. Brandt was discharged in Richmond, Virginia in 1865 and brought his family to California in 1884, farming first in Sebastopol, then in Napa.
A historic plaque was placed in June 2012 to remember Eino Lindquist, a Finn who survived the sinking of the Titanic. After working in the Pennsylvania steel mills, Lindquist came to California, where he suffered from schizophrenia. He lived at the Napa State Hospital, where he succumbed to a stroke on Halloween 1958 at the age of 66. The exact site of his grave isn’t known, but he’s buried alongside other patients from the psychiatric hospital in the potter’s field section of the cemetery.
The cemetery contains casualties of both World Wars, victims of the Spanish flu pandemic, and Chinese laborers. In fact, Tulocay has a large Chinese immigrant section. If the graves were ever marked, their temporary wooden monuments have either deteriorated or burned in one of several fires to sweep the cemetery.
Tours of Tulocay were hosted formerly by Napa Valley Landmarks. These often drew between 150-200 attendees, but were discontinued when historian Nancy Berman retired. Her work continues in the series of self-guided walking tours at http://www.tulocaycemetery.org/cemetery-tours.
Click here to sign up for my monthly mailing list, which will keep you up to date on my speaking schedule and upcoming projects. As a thank you, you'll receive "4Elements," a short ebook that showcases one of my favorite cemetery essays, a travel essay, and two short stories, spanning from urban fantasy to science fiction.
One of the things that I am absolutely fascinated by is the way cities are built up over their dead. In long-lived cities like Rome or Paris or London, it’s inevitable that cemeteries from the past have been built over and forgotten. In San Francisco, which isn’t even 250 years old, the shortness of memory is more surprising.
San Francisco is famous for many things: tech companies like Twitter and Uber, the cacophony of sea lions at Pier 39, the Painted Ladies houses, major earthquakes. It’s also known, especially among locals, for not having any cemeteries. 
Sunday, September 22, 2019 from 1-4 pm
Oak Hill Memorial Park
Three years later, Dr. John Townsend led the first party of wagons to come over the Sierra mountains in 1844. He was the first licensed physician in San Francisco, where he also served as the city’s fourth alcalde (mayor during the Mexican era) before he caught Gold Fever. Townsend was also a founding member of the San Jose Lodge 10 of the Free and Accepted Masons. While nursing victims of a cholera epidemic in San Jose in 1850, he and his wife Elizabeth perished.
George Donner Jr. was ten when his parents died in the Sierras during the winter of 1846-7. San Franciscans bought a lot for the boy, who grew up to be a grain dealer and joined San Jose’s volunteer fire department. He died in 1874 and is buried with his four-year-old son Albert. For many years, George’s grave was unmarked, but a large granite monument to the Donners stands there now.
Mountain Charlie, whose real name was Charles H. McKiernan, built most of the early roads into the Santa Cruz Mountains and ran a stagecoach line between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz. He controlled lumber mills, orchards, vineyards, and raised sheep and cattle. On May 8, 1854, Charlie got between a mama grizzly bear and her two cubs. Although she crushed the front of his skull in her jaws, he survived the attack. For the rest of his life, he wore his hat pulled low to disguise this disfigurement. He died of stomach cancer 38 years after the attack. Charlie’s grave is a California Registered Point of Historical Interest. The plaque remembers him as the “most colorful of all characters in the Santa Cruz Mountains.”
In December 1858, at the first meeting the new cemetery committee, Don Cayetano donated almost 50 acres of his land to the people of Napa for Tulocay Cemetery. (Apparently, the spelling was changed in the process.) In return, Juarez received a token payment of five dollars. Upon his sudden death in 1883, he was buried not far from the cemetery’s gate. His wife Maria Higuera Juarez joined him in 1890.
John Patchett came to Napa in 1850. He planted grapes and became the first commercial winemaker in the Valley in 1858. That first year, Patchett used a cider press to extract the grape juice. Somehow, the title of first winemaker was given to Charles Krug (who had apprenticed in Patchett’s winery). Patchett’s last vintage was 1865.
