Bay Area Cemetery Tours

Rose Hill Cemetery, 2001

Joe asked me a while ago if I'd guest blog here.  Hope this announcement fits the bill...

I spent last year's Nanowrimo working on a book about the historic cemeteries of the San Francisco Bay Area. I've visited a lot of them, but not nearly all, so I made myself a list of places I need to see. Ideally, I could find someone to give me a tour, show me the highlights, and ground my research for each one.

In early February, Annetta Black -- mastermind of the Obscura Society in San Francisco -- wrote to ask if I'd consider giving cemetery tours for the group.

I am qualified to lead cemetery wanders, but not tours. My knowledge of our local graveyards is broad, rather than deep. However, I would be thrilled to arrange tours for anyone interested in learning more about cemeteries -- and now I am.

This Sunday, March 23, the Obscura Society is touring one of my favorite local cemeteries: the Rose Hill Cemetery at Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve. This cemetery was almost completely obliterated by vandals and the well-intentioned preservation tactics of early park employees. It has been painstaking puzzled back together through the love and service of the more recent rangers and historians.

The cemetery is about all that survives of the five coal-mining ghost towns on the eastern slopes of Mount Diablo. It's a reminder of how different the past was from the present, even though it's barely 150 years distant.

Tickets are still available, if you'd like to explore for yourself. Here's the link: http://www.atlasobscura.com/events/obscura-society-sf-rose-hill-cemetery-tour

In April, we're going to explore Mare Island's ship-building history and the first naval cemetery on the West Coast. I'll let you know when those tickets are available.

Looking past the headstones at Alcatraz Island

Now I'm working on the May tour. I think we're looking at Memorial Day weekend, so it will be a tour closer in to San Francisco and Oakland. I was thinking maybe the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio, which will be pretty with all the graves decorated with flags.

In the works are tours of St. John's Cemetery in San Mateo, the Rural Cemetery in Santa Rosa, and a walking tour of the vanished cemeteries of San Francisco. I'm going to lead that one myself.

Is there anywhere you've been particularly interested in touring? Any Bay Area graveyard that caught your eye that you'd like to know more about?

San Francisco Presidio Pet Cemetery

Dating to around 1950 the San Francisco Presidio Pet Cemetery can be considered one of only two cemeteries left in San Francisco. The other is of course the San Francisco National Cemetery also located at the Presidio. The Pet Cemetery is the final resting place of the pets of many Army personnel that were stationed at the Presidio in and around the 1950's. It was featured on the news one night and I decided that I was going the next day to check it out because I had no idea it was there. Turns out that it's not only home to cats and dogs but hamsters, gold fish, lizards, you name it. Many of the markers bear the names of the owners who happened to rank as high as General in some cases. I personally like the animal cemeteries just for the names alone. Where else are you going to see a weiner dog named Woody? A bunch of construction is going on in close proximity to the cemetery which is probably why it made the news. I don't know what all the construction is about because I didn't listen to that part. I just knew I had to get to this little cemetery before they blocked off the road or something. It's an interesting little stop on a trip to San Francisco. Much more interesting than the uniform military cemetery that we call the National. Here are a few more pics that I took while I was there...



Here you see people (tourists) on one of the many sight seeing tours you can take around San Francisco. The building in the back is what I believe to be military barracks. The Presidio is huge and dates back to the late 1700's when the Spanish ran California...








Here is a wider view where you can see more of the size of things. The orange/brown fence in the back is where they're doing the construction...

Ma. S. O. De Arguello?

So you're probably wondering just like I was. What's a Ma. S. O. de Arguello? Well after about an hour of research and several different Google searches I finally found out. Maria Soledad Ortega de Arguello. I see a lot of abbreviations for names on gravestones or in this case monuments but without the power of the internet I may have never figured this one out. Maria was the grand daughter of Sgt. Ortega of the Portola Expedition which was Spain's first attempt to explore Alta California and allegedly the first European to see the San Francisco Bay. At the age of 25 in 1822 she married Luis Antonio Arguello and married into one of the most influential families in early California History. Luis succeeded his father as governor of California and became the first native of Alta California to serve as governor under the rule of the Mexican government and the first native of California to hold that position. Luis never lived on Rancho de las Pulgas but his family moved there after his death in 1830. Rancho de las Pulgas has now become 5 cities in Northern California. It now forms the cities of San Mateo, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Atherton and Menlo Park.

I found it interesting that Maria is buried at Santa Clara mission cemetery while Luis is buried at Mission Dolores in San Francisco. I searched through my pictures and happened to have a picture of Luis' grave from when I visited Mission Dolores for a school project on missions for my girlfriend's daughter. I had no idea at the time that I would one day be able to connect him to someone else. With most of my earlier pictures I wasn't as interested in the history behind who was buried as I was the marker itself. I now find myself saying "I need to go back there and get more information." I'm just glad I keep my photos organized enough to be able to go back and see if I have that one crucial link...

San Francisco National Cemtery at the Presidio

California was first colonized by Spain in 1542 with the discovery of the San Diego Bay. The region remained mostly unexplored for more than 200 years. Spain was known for establishing pueblos, missions and Presidios as a way of colonization. The Presidios served as military outposts which would be able to provide support in case of invasion for the pueblos and missions. They also served as trading centers as they would receive the annual supply of goods from Mexico and were also responsible for the disbursement of such goods. The first Presidios were Monterey and San Diego being established in 1769. It was in 1776 that the Presidio of San Francisco was established. It wasn't until 1850 with the discovery of gold that President Fillmore by executive order had established a military outpost at the Presidio. This was after a brief control by Mexico. By this time the Presidio had been nearly abandoned by Spain in favor of other interests. The first burial was at what was called The Post Cemetery in 1854. It wasn't until 1884 that the war department designated 9 acres as the site for the San Francisco National Cemetery. Today the cemetery spans 28 acres and over 28000 burials. It is the only cemetery within the city limits of San Francisco because in 1912 city officials passed an ordinance evicting all other cemeteries from the city limits of San Francisco (see Colma). Burials are currently denied in this cemetery unless previously reserved or if for some reason a reservation is cancelled. From the top of the hill I could see sail boats in the distance and the Golden Gate bridge on the other side. As with all military cemeteries I have seen the stones here were pretty plain and uniform as I expected. There were a few scattered stones here and there that appeared different but I had a long day already when we went to see the King Tut artifacts at the museum earlier in the day. I would have pictures of that as well if they actually allowed photography inside...as always thanks for reading.