Folsom Prison Cemetery Project
View the news feature which aired on September 3, 2018:
KCRA Folsom Prison Cemetery
As a community service project, the EDHGS is in the process of researching and cataloging the graves in the Folsom Prison Cemetery and posting our findings on the Find A Grave website (findagrave.com).
The Folsom Prison Cemetery was established around 1880, the same year the prison was built. The original prison cemetery was located down near the river, north of the original prison dam. This location was washed away in a flood in the 1880's. The bodies were re-buried up the hill several hundred yards from the river. In 1914, twenty convicts transferred the cemetery remains to the current location on a hill overlooking Folsom Lake.
The cemetery was used from 1880 through 1959. There were 93 executions by hanging at Folsom Prison, the last taking place in 1937. All of these men are buried in the Folsom Prison Cemetery. A total of 637 men are buried in the cemetery. Most have granite headstones with only their prison number chiseled into it. The bodies of the majority of men who died at Folsom Prison have been claimed by families or friends and given outside burial. There have been women prisoners serving sentences at Folsom Prison, but not a single woman is buried in the cemetery.
This project for our group will entail photographing the headstones and conducting research through old ledgers and mug shots at the Prison as well as the State Archives and other locations. We hope to match a name, photograph, headstone photograph, and at least a few details on each man buried there. We'll then get all of this information online, so it will be easily available to those looking for it.
Update: As of January 2017 we have completed all 18 rows of the Folsom Prison Cemetery. Every marker located, along with mugshots and biographical data can now be reserached on findagrave.com. We posted over 560 memorials on findagrave.com. A big "thank you" to all those EDHGS members who helped make this project a success!
Next steps: We now plan to visit the cemetery to photograph a pile of approximately 150 granite markers located off to the side of the main cemetery. The burial location of those prisoners is unknown at this time. Once researched, will we post that information on findagrave.com too.
KCRA Folsom Prison Cemetery
As a community service project, the EDHGS is in the process of researching and cataloging the graves in the Folsom Prison Cemetery and posting our findings on the Find A Grave website (findagrave.com).
The Folsom Prison Cemetery was established around 1880, the same year the prison was built. The original prison cemetery was located down near the river, north of the original prison dam. This location was washed away in a flood in the 1880's. The bodies were re-buried up the hill several hundred yards from the river. In 1914, twenty convicts transferred the cemetery remains to the current location on a hill overlooking Folsom Lake.
The cemetery was used from 1880 through 1959. There were 93 executions by hanging at Folsom Prison, the last taking place in 1937. All of these men are buried in the Folsom Prison Cemetery. A total of 637 men are buried in the cemetery. Most have granite headstones with only their prison number chiseled into it. The bodies of the majority of men who died at Folsom Prison have been claimed by families or friends and given outside burial. There have been women prisoners serving sentences at Folsom Prison, but not a single woman is buried in the cemetery.
This project for our group will entail photographing the headstones and conducting research through old ledgers and mug shots at the Prison as well as the State Archives and other locations. We hope to match a name, photograph, headstone photograph, and at least a few details on each man buried there. We'll then get all of this information online, so it will be easily available to those looking for it.
Update: As of January 2017 we have completed all 18 rows of the Folsom Prison Cemetery. Every marker located, along with mugshots and biographical data can now be reserached on findagrave.com. We posted over 560 memorials on findagrave.com. A big "thank you" to all those EDHGS members who helped make this project a success!
Next steps: We now plan to visit the cemetery to photograph a pile of approximately 150 granite markers located off to the side of the main cemetery. The burial location of those prisoners is unknown at this time. Once researched, will we post that information on findagrave.com too.