chinese cemetery memorial

Its very forlornness speaks to the vanishing footprint of a thriving Chinese population in the gold camps of the Gold Rush era.

We were staying in the Yreka RV Park, which is only a mile of two from this cemetery. We like old cemeteries, so of course had to visit, even thought this is more a memorial than cemetery.Yreka's "Chinatown" was located a couple of miles away from the main part of town, up on a hill. In keeping with the cultural traditions of the time, the Chinese had their own cemetery, where many were interred from about 1850 through about 1930.In the 1970's, the construction of I-5 freeway demolished the last vestiges of the old Chinatown. All of the remains in the Chinese cemetery were dug up and shipped to China, so there are no actual graves at this memorial.The cemetery memorial has a small gravel parking area. We walked under an archway and entered the old cemetery grounds. There is a single headstone marked with Chinese characters which say - "The Graveyard of Our Past Friends. Erected in the mid-summer of the 26th year of Emperor Kwong-Shui."There is a gazebo which has some benches, and an informational sign with the list of names of all the people who were originally buried there.Even though this one has no graves, it makes for an interesting brief stop if you like to learn some of the history of the area, as we do!It is easy to find the Chinese Memorial. It's just on the east side of the freeway, on the north side of Hwy 3. You'll see the arch and a gazebo from the road.