The South Lake Tahoe Historical Society has installed a number of historical placards that make up an auto tour of South Lake Tahoe for visitors to drive to points of interest and learn about their history via smartphones. One of those points of interest is the Al Tahoe Cemetery, a neglected plot of land where the first pioneers and residents of South Lake Tahoe were buried. An article by the
Community keeps memory of Al Tahoe cemetery alive
Many Al Tahoe residents may not even be aware of the old graveyard that has been in their neighborhood for more than a century.
Spanning a few lots near the corner of Alameda and Berkeley avenues, the cemetery originally occupied part of the Thomas Rowland estate, which covered much of the South Shore. Land for the community cemetery was donated by Rowland in the late 1800s.
In 1908, the property surrounding the cemetery was sold to the Al Tahoe company by Almerin R. Sprague, Sophrenia Rowland and Fannie Barton.
In 1964, 76-year-old Jack Meyn expressed to the Tribune his frustration with the decades of neglect that had taken their toll on the old Al Tahoe cemetery.
“Charlie Young and I dug the grave for John Hill in that cemetery,” Meyn told the Tribune. “Hill was the man who pioneered Lakeside at Stateline.”
Meyn remembered the old Lakeside Tavern in 1910, when the state line ran through what now is the Village Center, a half-mile west of its current location. Back then, the state line passed through the middle of a bar inside the Lakeside Tavern, which today would be located entirely in California.
Meyn also remembered that Orsame W. Dickey, who is buried in the cemetery, used to carry the mail on skis from Lake Tahoe to Gardnerville over Kingsbury Grade.
In the 1920s, Meyn recalled, Frank Globin came to the area and bought the Al Tahoe Hotel and surrounding land, which was named after the former landowner, Al Sprague. By 1946, Los Angeles businessman Aram Harootunian was selling subdivided lots in Al Tahoe for $10 down, $10 per month and no interest. Harootunian had bought the Al Tahoe land around the cemetery, but the cemetery itself never has been sold. According to the County Recorder’s office in 1964, the cemetery still belonged to the heirs of Rowland, Sprague and Barton.
The Al Tahoe street grid and lots were laid out without regard to the old cemetery, which occupied parts of eight different lots, and Alameda Avenue was paved over one entire corner of the cemetery.
“As you can see now, it has been reduced in size to about three lots,” longtime resident and former Al Tahoe postmaster Stanton Meyer told the Tribune for an article in its 1974 Halloween issue.
“When the sewer line was run along the south side of the street near the cemetery, bones were flying far and wide,” Meyer said.
In 1975, The Lake Tahoe Historical Society had to rebury an urn containing the remains of Arthur Hill, which had been unearthed by the gas company digging along Alameda Avenue.
Years of vandalism, decay and natural weathering, as well as development and construction in the area, have destroyed or damaged many of the original cemetery markers, and many graves and their occupants have been lost to the passage of time. Over the years, old cans, cardboard boxes and other trash had been thrown into the cemetery property.
In 1976, Donald C. Deede, a Boy Scout in Troop 494, was inspired by stories he had read in the Tribune and decided to clean up the old Al Tahoe cemetery for his Eagle Scout project.
With donations and assistance from community members, he cleared out some overgrowth and trash around the graves, and repaired the wooden fence around the cemetery.
As part of his project, Deede compiled historical information about the cemetery, including a list of some of the known pioneers buried there, including A.W. Goodrich, Flora Dickey, Baby Arrabilasaga and Cyrus Power. According to Deede, the last person buried in the cemetery was Leo Dickey, who died in 1959. Deede’s report on the cemetery project now is in the possession of the Lake Tahoe Historical Society.
In recent years, students in South Tahoe Middle School’s Club Live and other volunteers have helped to clean up the cemetery as part of the annual Make a Difference Day.
Today, people traveling down Alameda Avenue, between Fresno and Berkeley avenues, can see a sign for “The Old Historic Al Tahoe Cemetery” maintained by the Lake Tahoe Historical Society, listing some of the names of those buried there, and a few of the old grave markers still are visible through the fence.