Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery

In the late 1940s, plans for Folsom Dam at the confluence of the North and South Forks of the American River meant that several historic cemeteries and isolated graves would be flooded, requiring relocation of the remains. In 1954, 384 remains from Old Mormon Island, Negro Hill, McDowell Hill, Condemned Bar, Carrolton Bar, Doton’s Bar, Natural Dam, and Salmon Falls were moved to Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery, along with five individuals from isolated graves: Albert Tweed, Abigail Packwood, John S. Smith, Chan Lin Din, and the Beckholdt Girl. The original locations of all graves were recorded, and remains were moved with any markers, fences, and copings; for graves whose individuals were unknown, concrete markers labeled “Unknown” with the cemetery or location name were made. The Army Corp of Engineers transferred responsibility for the cemetery to El Dorado County in October 1954, and at five acres it became one of the county’s largest cemeteries, with family plots set aside for descendants and future relocation needs; in 1996, remains from Prairie City Cemetery were also interred there after their discovery during construction of the Prairie City Road on-ramp to U.S. Highway 50. The relocated burials came from Gold Rush-era communities along the American River. Old Mormon Island grew from a Mormon mining settlement near Sutter’s Fort into a supply center between Sacramento and Coloma, reaching about 2,500 people by 1853; its earliest marked burial was Dr. D.H. McCall, who died June 2, 1850, and its last marked grave was Charles Simpson, who died in 1853. Negro Hill developed near Mormon Diggings between 1848 and 1849 as one of California’s larger communities of miners of African heritage, later joined by people from many other backgrounds; thirty-six individuals were relocated from its cemetery, but only four have been identified through obituary research: E. Dwight Lyman, Charles Lloyd, Lavinia Clark, and J.R. Clark. McDowell Hill, a small settlement above Mormon Island named for Thomas McDowell, had ten unmarked burials removed. Condemned Bar, once considered one of the richest bars on the river, contributed five unidentified burials. Carrolton Bar flourished in 1849 and 1850, declined, then revived when ditch water arrived; five graves were relocated, including those of David Skallstrom, Thomas J. Tate, and James C. Collier. Doton’s Bar began in 1849, later became more productive with water ditches and hydraulic mining, and contributed seven unidentified graves. Natural Dam, where Chinese mining companies worked the river, yielded six graves, with E. Pratt the only marked burial. Salmon Falls Diggings, an early and extensive mining settlement, contributed seventy-six remains, including fourteen marked burials and sixty-two unmarked graves, some possibly connected to an 1852 epidemic. The isolated graves also preserve personal histories: Albert Tweed of Malden, Massachusetts, died September 4, 1860, at age thirty-five; Abigail Packwood, wife of John Packwood and mother of eight children, died November 5, 1851, at age forty-one; John S. Smith died August 30, 1856, at age twenty-eight; Chan Lin Din’s gravestone identified him as being from Sun Wai, Hoi Hai Village, China, though his death date is unknown; the Beckholdt Girl was buried near her family’s cabin at New York Ravine, but her name, age, and date of death are unknown. Arthur R. Bishop, Jr., born March 12, 1917, died August 28, 1924, and his remains were instead moved in 1954 to a Catholic cemetery in Sacramento.

El Dorado Hills, California · United States