Sunny Hill Cemetery, Sunnyhill Cemetery, Sausalito, Marin County, California. Californios.us

A typed note found at the Sausalito Historical Society reads:

Sunnyhill Cemetery
Block 68, Lot 8
1885-1886
First cemetery in the Sausalito area known as "New Town" under the auspices of Sausalito Land & Ferry Company. It is off Rodeo Avenue and cypress surround the perimeter. Four known burials still interred. The driveway for carriages can still be seen. Many graves transferred to Sausalito cemetery prior to 1902.

(See accompaning 1992 photograph by Tom Hoover, SHS.)

LOCATION      This cemetery is located toward the upper end of Rodeo Avenue, about 520 feet above sea level. This cemetery is within the original holdings of the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company and within the corporate limits of the City of Sausalito. Today, it is within the bounds of the Marin Headlands, Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
     Originally, Rodeo Avenue ran from Sausalito, uphill to the ridge line where it met Alta Avenue. Back in the late 1800s, it was a dirt road. During the 1930s, Rodeo Avenue was bisected by a very large earth cut during the construction of US Highway 101. Today the lower portion of Rodeo Avenue in Sausalito proper is a paved city street. The upper portion of Rodeo Avenue in Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a hard packed dirt, limited access, service road. While private automobiles are prohibited, hiking is allowed. Direct access to upper Rodeo Avenue from the city side of the freeway and lower Rodeo Avenue is not possible.
     To visit Sunny Hill Cemetery, proceed southbound on US 101 from Marin City, take Rodeo Avenue exit to the locked gate. Park there, but do not block the gate. On foot, start up the service road until you reach a very large grove of Monterey Cypress trees. That grove is about 1700 feet distant and 220+ feet higher than the gate. Power lines run along the north side of the cypress grove.
THE CEMETERY TODAY      Planted Monterey Cypress, an early import to Marin County, encompass much of the cemetery. Inside the orderly rows of trees, a very different world exists. It is lush and dark, it feels like a primal rain forest. Fallen trees litter the floor, native mosses and ferns thrive, as does an introduced ivy, and yes, California's poison oak is ever present too. Monterey Cypress has a life span of about 100 years. Considering that some of these old giants might have survived from the 1880s, this grove would be very old indeed and much unlike the well maintained old cypress in Sausalito proper. When the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway 101 were built in the 1930, there were considerably less trees in the Sausalito hills, but the cemetery's Monterey Cypress were already fully mature. In an aerial photograph of the highway under construction, the cemetery is very appearent.
WARNING      Within the cypress grove among the deadfall, ferns, wild black berries, and ivy is a deep shaft, possibly an uncovered cistern. There is a large manmade drainage ditch leading to this deep shaft. Only a single strand of wire acts as a barrier. Don't Fall In! Use Caution!
CEMETERY HISTORY      The Sunny Hill Cemetery in Sausalito was in existence in 1885, it is mentioned that year in The Sausalito News. Since the newspaper started publishing in 1885, an earlier history of the cemetery is elusive. By 1885, the cemetery's location was no longer favored, we see in that year, the beginning efforts to find a more suitable location.
     Block 68, Lot 8 appears on an 1890s Sausalito Land & Ferry Company land sales map. Within that Lot 8 is a small tract of 2.59 acres that at one time carried the Parcel Number 13. The numbers Block 68, Lot 8 are also found on the Marin County Assessor's Map Book 64, Page 64, City of Sausalito...County of Marin, Calif. In 1961, that parcel and with many others were bundled together to form APN 064-260-24. That entire very large parcel is now owned by the United State of America. We have not seen any old time map that identifies the small tract as a cemetery.
     That 1890s map also shows the newly formed Sausalito Cemetery at the very north end of its Sausalito land holdings. It was this new Sausalito Cemetery that received the remains from Sunny Hill. Today, we know that new Sausalito Cemetery as Forever Fernwood and at the heart of Fernwood is its oldest area, the "Sausalito Section." The first burial in the new cemetery was of one Catherine Domergue, died December 15, 1891. It is possible that any other monument there with a death date prior to 1892 represents a earlier Sunny Hill burial, the remains and monument being moved to the new Sausalito Cemetery in the 1890s.

Sunny Hill Cemetery Location
Upper Rodeo Avenue, Sausalito, CA
Marin Headlands, Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Degrees Minutes Seconds:
Latitude: 37° 51' 36.0714" Longitude: -122° 30' 7.488"
Decimal Degrees:
Latitude: 37.86002 Longitude: -122.50208

Newspaper Articles ::
1885, Memoriam for Francis Slinkey.

1885, Cemetery Hill Mentioned

1885, Cemetery Meeting

1885, Cemetery Meeting

1891, New Sausalito Cemetery Authorized

1891, Funeral of Catherine Domergue, Reported (1892)

1893, Removal of Bodies from Old Sausalito Cemetery

Note ::

Cypress. Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa). Native Range: Monterey Cypress is limited to two groves near Monterey on the Pacific Coast of California.

(Click the Images to See MUCH Larger Versions)
Sunny Hill Cemetery Site, Cypress Grove and Power Line	Rodeo Avenue at the Cypress Grove and the Cemetery Site	From Rodeo Avenue Uphill into the Cemetery	Inside the Grove
Inside the Grove	Inside the Grove	Inside the Grove	Inside the Grove
Domestic Ivy Gone Wild	Guard Wire	The Deep Shaft Caution is Urged!	Native Ferns Inside the Grove
Planted Row of Monterey Cypress	Planted Row of Monterey Cypress	Looking North from Sunny Hill over Richardson's Bay	Sausalito Land and Ferry Company Map from the 1890s. (Detail)
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