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At their meeting on Tuesday, December 5, 2006, the Sonoma County Supervisors recognized outstanding county volunteers. Among those honored was Jeremy Nichols, Cemeterian of the Sonoma County Historical Society, for his on-going efforts to restore the long-neglected county cemetery now known as the Chanate Historic Cemetery. This old graveyard, located on Chanate Road across from Sutter Hospital, was once the place of burial for those to whom private graves were unavailable.
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Above: Joe and Nancy Wang of the Redwood Empire Chinese Association. They were primarily responsible for getting RECA to support purchase of a commemorative marker for the Chinese buried at Chanate.
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Jeremy discovered the abandoned cemetery in 2000 while researching his book, Cemeteries of Sonoma County, California, A History and Guide (Heritage Books, 2002). Completely overgrown and marked only by a wooden sign, the cemetery contains over 1500 early Sonoma County residents: the poor, the homeless, the unwanted. In August 2003 Jeremy met with county staff, began raising funds and working with county volunteers to clear the site as well as erecting a monument. In 2006 the cemetery officially became part of Sonoma County Regional Parks.
Work to restore the Chanate Historic Cemetery continues. To date, 1200 concrete grave markers have been located, with the highest number being 1561.
Of these many burials in the old cemetery only 453 are known as to both name and location, and of those, 349 have been found. Fund raising to purchase markers for these graves is underway; volunteers who can work with concrete are also needed.
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