California Relocated Cemeteries

California

In San Francisco, the dead were not forgotten—but they were asked to move. Adapted from information found at http://www.sanfranciscocemeteries.com/

San Francisco’s Relocated Cemeteries (Condensed Reference List) They were moved by the thousands—yet each one carried a name, a story, and a place that once mattered.

(Where known: original location → new location | number moved)

Bush Street Cemetery
Bush, Sansome & Montgomery → Yerba Buena Cemetery
Moved: Unknown
Small early burial ground; quickly relocated.

Calvary Cemetery (Catholic, Lone Mountain) One of the largest removals in the city—an entire Catholic burial ground lifted and carried to Colma. Tens of thousands moved, one by one, out of San Francisco.
Geary Blvd & Masonic Ave → Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma
Moved: ~55,000

Chinese Cemetery
Near Laurel Hill (Geary & Parker area) → Golden Gate Cemetery
Moved: Unknown

First Street Cemetery
First & Clementina → Yerba Buena Cemetery
Moved: Unknown

Gibbath Olom (Jewish)
Dolores & 19th → Hills of Eternity, Colma
Moved: ~300

Golden Gate Cemetery One of the most haunting cases—many were never moved at all. Beneath a golf course, the past remains, quite literally, underfoot. Some bodies still beneath golf course.
Clement & 33rd Ave → Partially removed; some remain under Lincoln Park
Moved: Unknown (possibly ~11,000 remain)

Green Oak Cemetery
Market & 7th → Likely Golden Gate Cemetery
Moved: Unknown

Hebrew Cemetery (Pacific Heights)
Broadway & Gough → Hills of Eternity / Home of Peace, Colma
Moved: Unknown

Laurel Hill Cemetery A grand and prominent cemetery, relocated in full. Today, its former grounds have been entirely transformed, leaving little visible trace of what once stood there. California & Presidio Ave → Cypress Lawn, Colma
Moved: ~35,000

Masonic Cemetery Nearly 20,000 graves relocated—another vast operation that quietly emptied one of the city’s major burial sites.
Turk & Masonic Ave → Woodlawn Memorial Park, Colma
Moved: ~19,900

Mission Dolores Cemetery Some were relocated, others gathered and consolidated. Many were Native American burials, adding a deeper historical weight to what was moved—and what remained.
Dolores & 16th → Partially to Holy Cross, Colma
Moved: Portion of 5,515 graves

Nevai / Home of Peace (Jewish)
Dolores & 18th → Same name, Colma
Moved: ~300

North Beach Cemetery A rare example of the dead being relocated multiple times as the city reshaped itself around them.
Powell & Filbert → Yerba Buena → Golden Gate Cemetery
Moved: ~900

Odd Fellows Cemetery
Geary & Arguello → Greenlawn Memorial Park, Colma
Moved: Unknown (large cemetery)

Rincon Hill Cemetery
Harrison & Spear area → Unknown
Moved: Unknown

Russian Hill Cemetery
Taylor & Vallejo area → Yerba Buena Cemetery
Moved: ~30–40

St. Michael’s Cemetery
20th & Potrero → Holy Cross, Colma
Moved: Unknown

Telegraph Hill / Yerba Buena (early)
Broadway & Sansome → Yerba Buena Cemetery
Moved: Unknown

U.S. Marine Hospital Cemetery Not all were taken. Some still lie beneath landfill and landscaping, their presence acknowledged only by a later memorial. Now landscaped memorial site.
Presidio → Partially remains in place
Moved: Some; ~200–650 still buried onsite

Yerba Buena Cemetery (main city cemetery) San Francisco’s earliest major cemetery, once at the heart of the city—now beneath civic buildings and public spaces. The dead were moved… but this is where the story began.
Market & Larkin (City Hall site) → Golden Gate Cemetery
Moved: ~5,000–9,000

Yerba Buena Island Cemetery
Yerba Buena Island → Presidio National Cemetery
Moved: Unknown
Relocated during Bay Bridge era.

Buena Vista Park (Headstone Remnants) In the 1930s, fragments of pioneer headstones—marble and granite once carved with names, dates, and memory—were broken apart and repurposed to build the very bones of Buena Vista Park. Today, they line storm drains and retaining walls, their inscriptions worn but still visible to those who look closely. Along the winding paths, letters and numbers emerge from the stone—partial names, forgotten markers—quiet reminders that what once stood upright in remembrance now lies scattered beneath the feet of the living. Moved: Unknown (materials, not remains)
Now: Incorporated into park infrastructure (1930s)

By the late 1800s, the city of San Francisco held more than 200,000 burials, scattered across cemeteries woven into its growing neighborhoods. But as the population surged and land became precious, the living began to press against the space of the dead.

In 1900, San Francisco made a remarkable decision: all burials within city limits were banned.

What followed was not immediate, nor simple. Many records had already been lost in the fires after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, leaving countless graves unaccounted for. Over the following decades—through ordinances, debates, and repeated public votes—the cemeteries were slowly emptied.

The dead were moved.

Some carefully relocated to new burial grounds. Others, less fortunate, were left behind or displaced without clear record. Headstones and monuments, once markers of memory, were repurposed—used in seawalls, gutters, and the very fabric of the growing city.

Today, almost no traditional burials remain within San Francisco itself.

Only two cemeteries endure: the historic grounds of Mission Dolores and the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio. A handful of columbariums and church memorials quietly hold cremated remains, offering a different kind of rest.

Most of the city’s former residents now lie just beyond its borders, in the town of Colma—a place where the dead far outnumber the living, and where San Francisco’s past was ultimately carried.

It is a rare and striking truth:

A great city once chose to move its dead—
and in doing so, reshaped not only its land, but its memory.

Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery — Folsom Lake Project

The construction of Folsom Dam in the early 1950s required the relocation of numerous historic burial grounds that would have been submerged by the creation of Folsom Lake. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers established Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery in 1954 as a centralized reinterment site.

The cemetery became the final resting place for individuals originally buried in several early Gold Rush-era communities, including Mormon Island, Salmon Falls, Negro Hill, Condemned Bar, Carrollton Bar, McDowell’s Hill, Natural Dam, and Doton’s Bar, along with five individual graves. Many of these mining camps were established as early as 1848, following the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, and represent some of the earliest settlements in the region.

The relocation effort, carried out under the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ensured that these historic burials were carefully exhumed and reinterred rather than lost beneath the reservoir. Responsibility for the cemetery was transferred to El Dorado County in October 1954.

Additional remains were later added to the site in 1996, when construction of the Prairie City Road on-ramp to Highway 50 uncovered 12 burials believed to be from the former gold-mining community of Prairie City, once home to as many as 2,000 residents during the 1850s. These individuals were respectfully reinterred at Mormon Island Cemetery, continuing its role as a preservation site for displaced historic graves.

Today, the five-acre Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery is one of the larger cemeteries in El Dorado County, with 474 recorded burials and additional family plots reserved. Approximately half of the cemetery remains undeveloped, preserving space for future use while maintaining its historical significance.

Further documentation of the site and its history is available through the Historical Marker Database at https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=128767