Historic Cemeteries in Long Beach
Historic Cemeteries of Long Beach
The stories of those who lived in the city by the
sea begin long before the 1878 date on the oldest headstone found in the city.
The area is the site for ceremonial (and perhaps burial grounds) for the Tongva
native tribe.
Many of those who later
settled the city are buried in one of the four known cemeteries: Municipal,
Sunnyside, Forest Lawn Long Beach and All Souls. Two of the cemeteries hold
graves of several hundred Union and Confederate Civil War veterans and include a Medal of Honor recipient and a
slave who served in the 1st Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment and died
working as a janitor in city hall.
The Historic
Cemeteries of Long Beach documents the history of the Municipal and
Sunnyside cemeteries and how the 1921 discovery of oil made national news as
decedents fought for the oil underneath the graves. The fight resulted in a
second Sunnyside cemetery that later became Forest Lawn Long Beach. The scene
of oil derricks surrounding the cemeteries was so surreal that it caught the
attention of Ansel Adams whose photographs of Sunnyside Cemetery are included.
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