SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – On November 1, 1975, at 12:01 a.m., the Lake Tahoe Historical Society held a reburial ceremony of Arthur Marion Hill at the Al Tahoe Pioneer Cemetery. This Saturday, they are observing the 50th anniversary of Hill’s reburial.
Why was there a reburial, you ask?
A step back further in time will help provide the answer.
As pioneers and miners started making their way through the South Shore after the discovery of silver in Virginia City in 1859. Waystations and hotels were built and lined the roads, including the Tahoe Wagon Road, which circled what is now known as the Al Tahoe neighborhood along the lake. A hotel was built at the end of today’s Lakeview Avenue, The Lake House, in 1859. A popular spot for travelers, it burned down in 1866, and the land in this area was purchased in 1868 by Thomas and Saphrania Rowlands. The town of Rowlands came to be – they rebuilt the hotel and named it Rowland’s Lake House and Station, and along came Davis Brother’s Market, Parrish’s Blacksmith Shop, Alex Roop’s Firkin Shop. Several small cabins were built, and the town (much along where Bellevue Avenue is) thrived. The Custom House Saloon was built over the lake, and business was good.
Thomas Rowlands secured land outside his town to build a cemetery in 1868; however, records indicate the first burial occurred in 1861. This was long before a grid of streets and homes, but when people started moving into the new Al Tahoe area in 1945, that changed, and the cemetery was suddenly surrounded by homes and new streets.
One of those buried in the cemetery (now known as the Al Tahoe Pioneer Cemetery) is Arthur Marion Hill. His mother and uncle had begun to purchase large sections of land near the state line, including Lakeside Park, as well as land under the casinos. With the passing of his mother, Arthur helped his aunt and uncle run their enterprises, and when his uncle Elisha (E.B.) Smith died in 1904, Arthur married Katherine, his uncle’s widow. They continued to be major landholders on the South Shore, and with Arthur’s passing in 1913, Katherine ran it by herself. She sold off some of the land along the way that would lead to Tahoe Meadows, resorts, Lakeside Park Marina, Harrah’s and Harveys.
Katherine died in 1939, and she too was buried in the Al Tahoe Cemetery.
The story goes that the gas company was digging a trench along Alameda Avenue in 1974, apparently using a mechanical trencher, as former AI Tahoe Postmaster, Stan Meyers, who witnessed the event, said, “bones were flying far and wide!” An urn was uncovered during the trenching, and the Historical Society was able to identify the remains from papers in the urn as belonging to Arthur Hill.
The Historical Society arranged a funeral procession to the cemetery and reburied Arthur Hill at one minute after midnight, November 1, 1975.
On November 1, 2025 (at one minute after noon this time), meet the Al Tahoe Pioneer Cemetery Committee and other interested people on Lakeview Avenue at the exit of Regan Beach (on the grassy knoll). Those gathered will walk in a procession behind a hearse from McFarland’s Mortuary, and go to the cemetery on Alameda Avenue for a ceremony. This event is free, and costumed hosts will share the story at the cemetery.