Not Your Everyday Cemetery

You can learn a lot about an area by visiting their cemetery.  Kind of different I suppose, since it's not your ordinary tourist destination, but it sure will give you a connection to the local population.

In between rain storms, I wandered off with an idea of "about" where this was from checking Google Maps.  Obviously there were going to be a lot of dirt roads to traverse.  I watched the bars on my phone intently as I drove through some sketchy neighborhoods.  I didn't want to get too far out of touch with help.

Surprisingly there were lots of mobile homes stuck here and there amid the brush.  When I came upon this lovely fence post, I hesitated for just a second before continuing along the worst washboard road I've seen in awhile.  If this doesn't say get out, I don't know what does!

At the end of the road was a huge gate with an ominous sign NO TRESPASSING.  Well heck, the cemetery is right there.  I drove through and around the corner.  This is Leon Cemetery (also known as the Bravo-Leon Family Cemetery) in the middle of what used to be the Leon Cattle Ranch.

Like most cattle ranches of years gone by, they leased grazing rights for their cattle from the government.  This family had been raising beef for over 100 years in the Pantano Wash area of Vail.  It's obvious this isn't your normal cemetery, with many of the crosses and memorials made from horseshoes and metal pipes.

What happened to the ranch?  The Golf Course developer came in and convinced the government to sell them the prime property with water rights.  That was the end of the grazing rights and the end of the cattlemen.

For years, the developer didn't even give the family access to their ranch.  They had to jump a curb at the end of the golf course in order to drive home.  This is the grave of a baby, with barely room for the cross.  There are very few engraved headstones here.

Back in 1954, Charlotte married Jimmy Leon.  The only people around were ranchers from the Rocking K, the X9 Ranch, Mount Fagan Ranch and La Posta Quemada.  No freeway existed and the only buildings in Vail were a church and the little adobe building Post Office.  With no electricity, they heated water on a wood stove, used an outhouse and showered underneath a big barrel hung up in the air.

Rancho Del Lago's main house was empty in 1992 when the developer bulldozed it to the ground.  Rancho Del Lago had a racetrack, stables and cultivated fields growing lettuce and produce.  Back in the old days, if you had grazing rights, you had them forever.  Soon it became a cutthroat business and cattlemen lost those rights to the big developers with big money.

The same thing happened to our grazing permits in the south of Sequoia National Park.  Raising cattle then became so expensive, everyone went out of business, including us.  This small cemetery is all that is left, although a tiny portion of the ranch is still occupied at the end of this very long dirt road.

It's sad that no one really takes care of the cemetery.  There is trash all over, along with falling headstones.  Maybe I'll go back, clean up a little and explore their history a little more, assuming I don't get shot for trespassing.