California
SAVING GRAVES
Religious
Cemeteries
in
Gold Rush California
The rush to California to
claim a golden fortune created a need for religious instruction and ministry in
the wilderness mountainous region of the Sierra Nevada Mother Lode
country. Among the first churches to arrive in the gold country was the
Catholic Church. By the mid to late-1850s, Jewish synagogues and
cemeteries were being established in places such as Placerville in El Dorado
County, Jackson in Amador County, and Shasta City in Shasta County.
It is interesting today
to learn the history of these religious groups and to examine the past and
present condition of the churches and cemeteries established by them at the
height of the gold rush.
Jewish Cemeteries
(Construction to begin
June 1, 2003)