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Member
California
Historic Cemetery Alliance
In
Memoriam
NEW
ITEMS
Obliteration
of:
El
Dorado House Cemetery
Cultural
Resources Preservation Commission
(disbanded
Jan. 2003)
Coming Soon:
ATTORNEY
GENERAL letter
on Pacheco Cemetery public title.
NEW
BILLS introduced in the State Legislature
El
Dorado County HISTORIC CEMETERIES
(check here for information on the historic cemeteries)
New Addition,
2/22/03:
Nine
Mile House (aka Camino) Cemetery
COUNTY
OF EL DORADO
EDC
Cemetery Advisory Committee
BOS
Action Archives
Boards & Commissions
Cemetery
Districts
Ordinance Code
(See Title 8- Health & Safety; the cemetery ordinance is Sec.
8.20)
EDC
Cemetery Advisory Committee
CALIFORNIA GOVT
California State Website
Cemetery and Funeral Bureau
Assembly Home
Senate Home
Legislative Counsel
Home
STATUTES & LAWS
California Codes
(see Health & Safety Code beginning at Sec. 7000)
CA Health & Safety Code
CA Business & Professions Code
Professional and Vocational Regulations
Penal
Code Sec. 594 (Vandalism
& Desecration)
Management and control of Gold Rush "pioneer" cemetery;
California Attorney General Opinion
History of California Cemetery Laws
(EDC Saving Graves)
CEMETERY
PRESERVATION WEBSITES
SAVING
GRAVES
California
Saving Graves
El Dorado
County Saving
Graves
THIS SITE is
in a process of continuing construction. Please check on our
progress from time to time!
In
Progress:
About EDCPCC
Becoming a Member
ABOUT
US...
Purpose and Objectives
Websites
for GENEALOGY
Important
Message from the El
Dorado County Recorder
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THANK YOU
FOR VISITING OUR WEBSITE...
WHEN
gold was discovered in January
of 1848 by James Wilson Marshall while he was building a saw mill
for Captain Johann (John) Sutter on the South Fork of the American River
in what is now El Dorado County, little did the world anticipate the
events that followed. The word of the gold discovery in the newly
won territory of the United States, drew thousands of men, women,
and children from every civilized and uncivilized corner of the earth to
this California, the land of golden treasure.
HISTORIANS
have well documented these
events, detailing for readers and students the way in which California
became settled as the country's 31st state in the Union. The vast
wealth that was produced from nuggets and flakes of the golden metal,
made millionaires of some and beggars of others. More went home
empty handed than ever walked away with their pockets full of gold.
LESS
has been written, however,
about the thousands of men, women and children who came here and made
California their final resting places - their last homes on this
earth. In El Dorado County, alone, it is estimated that some five
to ten thousand people died between 1848 and 1900 whose graves within
the historic cemeteries cannot be found either by record document or by
graves marked in the cemeteries.
FORGOTTEN
sons and daughters, some
have called them, for their unmarked graves were left to the care of the
people of El Dorado County in graveyards and cemeteries that, today,
remain as the only evidence of many of our early towns and mining
camps. Several of these hallowed burying grounds, like the
communities they once represented, have also disappeared in the years
since the world first rushed in.
CEMETERIES
of mining camps and towns
with the strange names of Bottle Hill, Georgia Slide, Rattlesnake Bar,
Wisconsin Bar, Maine Bar, and others, quite simply cannot be found,
although the documentary evidence is that they once existed. Many
of these places, like the towns and camps, were simply just abandoned as
word of gold strikes elsewhere rippled through the Mother Lode.
SOME,
however, have begun to
disappear or suffer in more recent times. With residential and
commercial development at an all time increase in El Dorado County, we
have documented the wholesale destruction and desecration of our
historic cemeteries that appears to match the new rush of humanity now
emigrating to this once rural county.
SO
appalled we were that, in
1996, a small group of citizens founded and chartered the EL
DORADO COUNTY PIONEER CEMETERIES COMMISSION
(EDCPCC) to research and study the history of the cemeteries to learn and
document what has occurred and is occurring to these valuable and
irreplaceable historic and cultural resources.
ALTHOUGH
we have performed
extensive research documenting the cemetery histories, establishing
their extensive use (some are still being used by the public today), as
well as lack of plat maps or records, since our formation, the single
biggest obstacle we have faced has been to try to convince the County of
El Dorado that California state law vested title to these places in
the public.
PLEASE
accept our invitation to
review our findings for the many cemeteries we have studied.
What you may learn will not always be pleasant. We have attempted
to learn the truth of what has happened and is happening to our historic
cemeteries. Their stories are nearly as dismal as their physical
condition today.
THE
next time you visit an
historic cemetery, look around. Take note of the common rock grave
markers, the mounds and depressions devoid of any marker at all.
If the cemetery is still being used for current interments and you do
not see these evidences of early unmarked and unknown graves, ask
yourself, "What's wrong with this picture." And then
contemplate who is or will serve as guardian of the graveyards and
cemeteries where your loved ones rest in peace. How peaceful is
it?
Sincerely,
Sue
(nee
Herrick*) Silver,
President
Fourth Generation Californian
Cameron Park, California
* My Herrick and Page
families came from Wisconsin to California between 1850 and 1851.
They first settled at Drytown in El Dorado County (now Amador
County). They were Amador County Pioneers who are buried in
unmarked graves in the Plymouth City Cemetery, Amador County,
California.
"Show
me your cemeteries, and I will tell you what kind of people you
have." Benjamin Franklin
(1706 - 1790)
LOST & FOUND....
The Tombstone Garden at the County Museum
This site
is generously Hosted by USGenNet
Copyright 2002-2003
EL DORADO COUNTY
PIONEER CEMETERIES COMMISSION
Thank you for visiting the
El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission website. Please contact
us if you would like further information about the cemeteries or
would like to become a member of EDCPCC.
Last updated October 13, 2003
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