California's City of the Dead

Several years ago I was considering a trip to Egypt when I discovered that Cairo had a mammoth cemetery that stretched four miles long! As someone who loves cemeteries, I couldn't help but to look into this ancient necropolis. It is nearly 1,500 years old and is so vast that squatters live among the tombs. Common people were buried here as well as historical figures and elites. The huge burial ground has been called “City of the Dead.”

I still hope to visit Cairo someday, but for now our trip to Egypt didn't pan out. But imagine my delight when I learned that California had its own “City of the Dead.” And it happened to be near San Francisco, which is where we were headed for our next vacation!

The story begins in 1848 with the California Gold Rush. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill brought thousands of people to the area around San Francisco. The city grew, albeit in a chaotic manner.

As people moved in, many inevitably died, creating the need for cemeteries. In the 1850's four large cemeteries were built near Lone Mountain: Laurel Hill, Odd Fellows, Calvary and Masonic. By the 1880's there were 26 cemeteries within city limits.

Lone Mountain in modern-day San Francisco. In the 1800's there were four cemeteries around this hill.

In the latter part of the 1800's some people in the United States began to be wary of having residential areas so close to cemeteries. They feared that disease would be transmitted by wind, or that it could seep into the ground and contaminate the water supply. As a result, many places began building graveyards beyond the city limits.

This suited San Francisco well, as they also had the issue of cemeteries reaching capacity. In 1887 the archbishop of the Catholic church purchased 300 acres a few miles south of San Francisco in what is now Colma. This would become the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, which is now the largest in Colma.

Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California.

This area was thought to be unsuitable for a residential area and no one foresaw that someday the city might expand out that far. Some of the area was used for farming, but much of land around San Francisco, and especially near the ocean, was filled with sand dunes.

But the area worked well for a cemetery. The rail line to San Jose went by there, which made it a convenient trip. One could hold a service in the city and then travel on a train or street car to the cemetery for burial.

The cemetery issue in San Francisco grew worse and in 1900 the city created a new law that banned all new burials. Without public funding many of the cemeteries fell into disrepair. Tombstones and statues were toppled and in some cases people saw skeletons protruding from the ground. New cemeteries began to pop up near the Catholic cemetery in Colma.

Statue in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery.

In 1912 things got interesting when San Francisco decided to eliminate all cemeteries in the city. Yes, this meant moving them! This was a long process. When exhuming bodies, if the casket was still in good shape then both the body and casket were moved. If not, the bodies were thrown into boxes and moved that way. The family could purchase the headstone for $10. Headstones left behind were used for public projects or dumped in the bay. Colma became the new home to rebury San Francisco's dead.

By the 1940's an estimated 150,000 graves had been moved. As you might imagine, hundreds of graves were unintentionally (or intentionally) left behind. To this day graves still show up during construction projects and other works. It truly is a Poltergeist-like scenario where neighborhoods have been built atop abandoned graveyards.

Entrance to Russian and Chinese cemeteries. 

Russian Sectarian Cemetery.

Hoy Sung Ning Yung Chinese Cemetery.

Offerings at headstone in Hoy Sung Ning Yung Cemetery.

Today there are only two cemeteries within San Francisco city limits: Mission Dolores Cemetery and San Francisco National Cemetery. The area around Lone Mountain where the “Big Four” used to reside has become filled with residential neighborhoods and the University of San Francisco.

Colma has a living population of 1,500 people, but an estimated 1.5 million dead. A drive down El Camino Real furnishes views of expansive green graveyards on both sides of the road.

Persian graves at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park.

Serbian Cemetery. Notice the Russian Orthodox crosses. 

Our visits to the cemeteries in Colma were peripheral. Our hotel was in Colma, but most of our days were spent in San Francisco. If I had time in the morning I would take a quick drive through some of the burial grounds.

Several famous people are buried here, including Joe DiMaggio, Willie McCovey, Levi Strauss and Wyatt Earp. I enjoyed seeing the different styles of headstones that correlated with different nationalities or religions. Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery had several stone statues and crosses. I was surprised to see so many Russian Orthodox crosses at the Serbian Cemetery, surely a relic from Soviet occupation or their Slavic roots. Chinese headstones were etched with Hanzi characters, often with offerings at the base. Headstones at the Jewish cemetery, with their Hebrew letters, appeared to be crammed very close together, similar to photos of other Jewish cemeteries I've seen from around the world.

Grave of Joltin' Joe DiMaggio at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery.

By the time we had to leave for our next destination I had just scratched the surface of what the cemeteries in Colma had to offer. As a taphophile, I could have spent days here wandering through the different cemeteries, exploring in depth the variety and history this place had to offer.

The stories beneath the surface would be fascinating to uncover. Not only did San Francisco attract those from the eastern United States, but also immigrants from all around the world, and especially Asia. The collection of cemeteries in Colma represent the melting pot of San Francisco, and indeed, all of America. ♠

Salem Memorial Park and Garden (Jewish Cemetery).