Buena Vista Cemetery

GPS Coordinates: 38.133887, -120.459125
County: Calaveras
Record count: 2,898

Ownership: Murphys Cemetery District

Directions: Located within the central area of Murphys, along the west side of Highway 4, take School St., and bear right into the cemetery parking lot.

Background: Buena Vista Cemetery is located on Cemetery Lane, off Jones Street in Murphys, CA. The cemetery has grave sites dating back to the early years of the Gold Rush era with the earliest known burial there in June of 1855. Many graves were given no marker and their location is not known.

The earliest burials in Murphys are known to be in an area known as Brewery Gulch, near the intersection of Main Street and French Gulch Road. The townspeople that died during a smallpox epidemic during 1851 are said to have been buried there but there is no evidence remaining of who is buried at that location or where the burial site actually is. Buena Vista Cemetery is rural in atmosphere with wild turkeys and deer often seen in the cemetery. Local people use the quiet cemetery road for walking their dogs or just strolling with friends.

In the earlier years few official burial records were kept by cemetery trustees. There are burial permits dating back to the late nineteen sixties. In 2010 the Murphys Cemetery District Trustees began compiling complete records of all known and new burials in the cemetery, including locations. Burials from earlier years were identified by various methods: old newspaper obituaries, mortuary records, information on grave markers and other historical records.

Documents

• 
  Burial Register, June 2023, published by Murphys Cemetery District

Burial Records

• View All Transcriptions Combined, 2,898 records
  • District Sexton Records, compiled by Interment.net, July 2, 2025, (2,838 records)
  • Unidentified Burials, compiled by Interment.net, July 2, 2025, (60 records)

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