Nevada County’s historic cemeteries are beautiful, quiet places to visit, learn about the past, and pause for a moment of self reflection in nature. Some are built on hillsides with extraordinary views. While others you’ll find as shaded and solemn resting places under the pines. During the gold rush, the promise of getting rich attracted people from all over the world, and the cemeteries are a testament to this diversity.
Step Back In Time
From the first Nisenan who walked these lands to the influx of gold seekers and settlers who forever changed it, the historic cemeteries in Nevada County are a melting pot of forgotten people and their lost stories. Step back in time when you visit these final resting places. Grab a glimpse into the world of miners, newspaper magnates, murdered families, frontiersmen turned politicians, Black civil rights advocates, Chinese pioneers, early authors of the West, and so many more.
“Every hand-carved granite or marble monument, every faded wooden marker, holds a clue,” wrote Archaeologist Christopher Ward in his book, “Cemeteries of the Western Sierra,” a volume filled with dozens of photos and mesmerizing true stories.
Take a Guided Historic Cemetery Walk
If the thought of walking in a cemetery alone sounds frightening, a guided Historic Cemetery Walk could be the answer one of the many Halloween tours happening in the county during the Halloween season.
Every year, Folk Trails Hiking Club and Inn Town Campground invite history lovers on a two-mile urban walk through Nevada City’s historic cemeteries. And just in time for the seasonal show of fall color. For 2024, the walk will take place on Thursday, October 24. Walkers will visit Pine Grove Cemetery, and as time allows, possibly Pioneer Cemetery and St. Canice Historical Cemetery, too.
Meet in the Robinson Plaza, next to the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce in downtown Nevada City at 4 p.m. Wear comfortable walking shoes, bring water, and don’t forget your camera.
Learn more at: Inn Town Campground
Do’s and Don’ts
Historic cemeteries are special and vulnerable places. Please help us preserve them.
- Tread lightly and leave no trace
- Do not take rubbings of headstones, it can damage the stone
- Take photos (not artifacts) as they are a great way to remember
Truckee
At the end of East Jibboom Street in Truckee is the Sierra Mountain Cemetery. Established in 1869 by the Masonic and Odd Fellows Lodge, the site provided a burial place for deceased members. Catholics also established a cemetery to the southwest. Look for pioneers and prominent citizens buried within the original fenced cemetery grounds. Legend says bodies were placed in snow banks or ice houses in the winter, awaiting the frozen ground to thaw. The Truckee Cemetery District took over the cemetery and named it in 1964.
Grass Valley
“If you get into local history it eventually leads you to an old cemetery every time,” said Chris Ward who’s given a number of cemetery tours throughout the county.
Old Grass Valley City Cemetery off Kidder Avenue includes an African American section with prominent Black influencers of the time. The cemetery is beautiful, with large trees and views that are easily accessible. It also holds a fraternal secret society area loaded with elaborate symbols and iconography as well as the grave of an entire murdered family including the dog.
“That’s one of the best we have. It’s well preserved,” said Ward, who grew up around the corner on Depot Street and spent a lot of his childhood exploring the cemetery.
Another Grass Valley cemetery to check out is the St. Patrick’s Cemetery. This is where disinterred nuns and priests were moved from during a two month period with full Catholic regalia. While there, explore the former convent, now the Grass Valley Museum and Cultural Center. Take a tour of the museum and the Russell Rose Garden, the oldest rose garden in Nevada County.
Look for national celebrities in the historic section of the Greenwood Cemetery. Across the street from Lyman Gilmore Middle School, see if you can find these names: Writer and Illustrator Mary Hallock Foote, Humorist Alonzo Delano, and John Rollinridge AKA “Yellow Bird”, author of one of the first California novels, “The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit.” Rollin Ridge is considered the first Native American novelist and the founder of the Sacramento Bee newspaper. He is buried in the cemetery with his wife, daughter, and brother.
Nevada City
In the Pine Grove Cemetery on Boulder Street in Nevada City, explore the graves of long-established Nevada County families, Free Masons, Odd Fellows, and veterans of the Spanish American War and World War I. Many of the citizens buried at Pine Grove were born long before gold was discovered and California became a state. The cemetery features elaborately carved tombstones and intricate ironwork.
It was fairly common for gold seekers to relocate cemeteries when the perceived riches in a hillside were worth more than the real estate of the dead. Gravediggers, sextons, and fraternal orders would disinter the bodies and move them to a new graveyard. Others were left behind and forgotten. A section of Pine Grove known as the “Brooklyn Cemetery” was relocated from the town of Red Dog.
Check out Author Brian Suwada’s book, “Their Spirits Took Flight – Nevada City’s Historic Pine Grove Cemetery.” It’s filled with 3,600 biographical sketches of early residents from 1854-1961, a cemetery map, listings of suicides and murders, public officials, veterans, cemetery symbolism, death related customs, and more than 140 photographs and other images.
Penn Valley
For something off the beaten path, head to Penn Valley. Here you’ll find two cemeteries that offer something a little different. The old Indian Springs Cemetery at 17542 Indian Springs Road in Penn Valley connects you to the region’s rich agricultural legacy and generations of ranching families.
While visiting the South Yuba River State Park, see how Bridgeport pays their respects to the 11 graves found in the Kneebone Cemetery. The Kneebones are a prominent Nevada County family who ran a popular resort in the area long before this section of the river became a state park. A toll keeper of the covered bridge is also buried in the small cemetery.
San Juan Ridge
If you’re looking for a peaceful escape into the farthest reaches of Nevada County’s old mining history, fill up the gas tank and take a country drive to the North Bloomfield Cemetery in Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park. You’ll find a rare wooden obelisk dedicated to a beloved teacher in the town. Stop by the visitor center in the heart of the ghost town of North Bloomfield and look for the book, “Memories of a Gold Digger” by W.W. Kallenberger, the grandson of the old town barber who shares tales of many of the people buried in the cemetery.
Go even further to see the Graniteville Cemetery where crosses mark unknown graves. The Gold Rush town, first known as Eureka, had a population of 1,000 people in the 1850s, but now has a population of just one, according to the 2020 census.
