The shots that ring out today in the air above Lake Merced are generally of no importance. They signify nothing more than our right to bear arms, and will bring satisfaction to no one, save the soul on the range that happened to pull the trigger. But on that very spot the morning of Tuesday, September 13, 1859, constitutional law was broken by  bullets from the dueling pistols of Senator Broderick and Chief Justice Terry, one of which granted the Senator a legacy as a martyr, as well as an eternal home in  San Francisco’s Lone Mountain Cemetary. (For the full history lesson, go here. )

However, if one were so inclined to visit this historic boneyard to pay respects to Sen. Broderick, or a litany of fellow politicians buried there, they would find only a solitary historical marker in place of the multitudes of monuments and gravestones that once dotted the slopes of that green hill. For you see, this haunted city simply has no place for her dead any longer.

Founded in 1854, Lone Mountain (later named Laurel Hill) was just one of many cemetaries in San Francisco, all of which met the same fate at the bulldozer’s hands when it was decided that there was no more room within the city limits to house such a healthy, growing population as were the Dead. In 1900, Mayor Phelan forbade burial within the city of SF, and in 1937 the Board of Supervisors issued an ordinance calling for the “disinterring and removal of human bodies.” which the voters upheld. (A full timeline of such events can be found here.)

Many of the bodies were exhumed and moved to Colma, however some still rest here, and some met a still worse fate. A Chinese Cemetery was at the rear of Laurel Hill from Parker to Arguello streets in the late 1800s, and was later moved to Golden Gate Cemetery. Many Chinese were wrapped in canvas, buried in six inches of dirt, unearthed and returned to their homeland of China by Pacific Mail Steamer without so much as a “Thanks for the Railroad!”

Photo by Tom Hilton

As for the monuments and headstones, some were used as paving stones alongside the trails of Buena Vista Park. Still others went to build the jetty upon which now sits the famous Wave Organ. The scavenged pieces of granite and marble that were once great pillars and archways have found a new life here, and in a way provide a fitting tribute to the City’s lost souls.