Iowa Hill working to purchase its Gold Rush-era cemetery

The once-bustling, still-surviving Gold Rush town of Iowa Hill's historic cemetery may soon have a new owner - and it's Iowa Hill.For years, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has held the deed to the six-acre property. The cemetery sits on a mining claim but the bureau has offered the land for sale to the Iowa Hill cemetery committee for less than $10,000.Priscilla Daniels, owner of the Iowa Hill Store and a supporter of the sale, said efforts have now started in the community to raise the money to transfer the deed. The Banjo Hill site's location on mining claim suggests that an excavation could take place, but Daniels said that there's little chance of someone coming in and digging up graves to get to the gold underneath.Iowa Hill Cemetery FundraiserWhat: Craft booths, gold panning, raffle, hike, and barbecueWhen: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Oct. 8Where: Iowa Hill"It's a beautiful old cemetery but what's really interesting is that it's still a mining claim," Daniels said.Iowa Hill grew quickly after gold was discovered, but while it could once boast both a skating rink and bowling alley in the late 19th Century, most people left after the gold petered out, leaving a base of 100 residents. The community has a solar-powered elementary school that will have seven children enrolled this year, but has no electrical or phone service.And it has a cemetery, with weathered stones and wrought iron. Under the ground lies a rich history of miners and fortune hunters that traces back to a time when the world rushed in for the gold.Among the dead and buried are 93-year-old Conrad Beohlfe, a German miner who died in 1871. He served at the Battle of Waterloo. Irish miner John Bracken died and was buried in the graveyard in 1882. Out of work, he committed suicide at 65. An 1887 buckboard accident took the life of a child, Louis Henry. An overdose of croton oil poisoned Bergman Shermire in 1862. The Prussian native died on Christmas Eve.The grounds are well-tended and an effort by Bob and Sharon Balmain of Woodland to find the names of people buried there through a search of 19th Century newspapers has increased its buried population by about 30 percent, Daniels said.To help pay for the property purchase, a fund-raising event will take place on Oct. 8 with craft booths and gold panning slated. A raffle will take place at 4 p.m. A hike down the Stevens Trail to the north fork American river from Iowa Hill will start at 11 a.m. Leading the walk will be Evan Jones, co-author of "Take A Hike."The fund-raising barbecue will start at 5 p.m. followed by the street dance.Daniels said her store will have historical photos and displays during the day, including photos of inventor Lyman Gilmore. The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.