Exploring Guerneville - Redwood Memorial Garden Pioneer Park


This angel adorns the Drake Family plot.

We recently purchased a property in Guerneville and moved in on June 2, 2021. Now that the house is mostly settled, we’ve begun to explore our new environs. Today, we went to Redwood Memorial Garden Pioneer Park, the burial place of Guerneville’s early settlers. A sign near the entrance says the land was laid out by John W Bayley in 1878. It was deeded to the IOOF Redwood Lodge 281 in 1882 and is currently maintained by volunteers from the Russian River Historical Society.

Headstones of America and Elizabeth Sutton

The road to the cemetery is windy, steep and very narrow. The cemetery site is partly level but sloped in places with burial plots following the topography. Most of the plots in the historic section are defined by low curbs. As in all pioneer cemeteries, the types of headstones vary a lot from painted wooden crosses to elaborate, elevated, tombs with granite details and upright cherubs or angels.
This simple, painted wood cross marks
the grave of Tawny Marie Chambers

The historic section has a canopy of mostly native trees that provide dappled light interspersed with sunny spots. In the newer area, the drive is lined with Albizzia trees that were blooming. Two of the earliest graves were for daughter Elizabeth Sutton who died in 1875 at the age of 16. Lying next to Elizabeth is her mother America Sutton who had died just ten months earlier. As I wandered through the plots I noticed that there seemed to be a large percentage of military veterans – both men and women.

A pair of unusual headstones for Mary Hurry Ungewitter and
Henry West Ungewitter


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