Restoration project at historic Pioneer Cemetery in South Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra in partnership with the Daughters of the American Revolution will be working this spring and summer to restore the historic Pioneer Cemetery located in the Al Tahoe neighborhood on Alameda Avenue.

This restoration project will be done by the two organizations but are asking the community for financial help to help finish the task. A Go Fund Me page has been started with a goal of $2,000 and can be found here.

Thomas Rowland started the town of Rowland's Station in 1866 after purchasing the old Lake House at the end of Lakeview Avenue in what is now South Lake Tahoe. He had come to the area from Strawberry where he had operated Strawberry Station. By 1870 Rowland's station was thriving with several homes, blacksmith and cobbler's shops, a mercantile, milk and smoke houses, and a commercial fishing camp. The main attraction was Rowland's Custom House and Saloon, a two-and-a-half story building on the end of a pier over the lake. It became "the place to party at the lake."

Thomas dedicated a plot of land for the town cemetery and it is that same cemetery that the two organizations will be restoring. Thomas and his wife Sophronia are buried there along with Fannie and Herman Barton and several members of the Young family. The last person was buried there in 1959 though a reburial of another person occurred at midnight on November 1, 1975.

For more information on the cemetery, visit the Lake Tahoe Historical Society's Al Tahoe Walking Tour website at http://www.tahoehistorytrail.org/al-tahoe-history-hunt.html.

To volunteer for the project or if you have any questions, please contact Mike at fostermt@charter.net.