While this is not the most exciting of cemeteries on the face of the earth, it does have it’s historic interest. This is largely a sadly maintained, forgotten stretch of land with a dusty road daring to lead the not-so-weak-at-heart in. Many of the older headstones need serious TLC. But on the other hand, who wants to go into a historic area and see everything sparkling as if it is brand new? Well, for those of you who say, «Right on!», this is the place for you. This is actually the 2nd cemetery for the California gold town of Sonora. For some unknown reason, the 1st cemetery no longer exists. Historic records indicate that those bodies were disinterred and moved to this«new» cemetery sometime in the late 1800’s. The headstones whisper names of early, forgotten residents, going back to around the 1870’s. I immediately noticed the name Bradford, a large family plot right in the middle of the cemetery. Samuel S Bradford has a street named after him, and it runs through the middle of old, historic Sonora. That’s because he was a very prominent citizen who ran a very successful lumber business in this area, one of the original founders. Others that at first may not have obvious significance until you ponder more, are the many Chinese surnames: the cooks at the camps, those who ran the laundries, peddled vegetables, ran the gambling and opium dens, and those who dared to(secretly) try their luck at gold mining. You can find interesting listings, some complete with pictures of headstones and a brief paragraph of their life or demise, of all those interred at this cemetery at: This link provides some interesting family ancestry information for those who are interested. Sonora also has a large Genealogical Society Research Library.
