Burrowing pests have undermined the soil beneath historic headstones at San Bernardino's oldest burial ground, causing some to sink or lean. Some headstones are also cracked, and the cemetery has suffered vandalism. At Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, a 26-acre site founded in April 1857 at 211 East 9th Street, a volunteer-led restoration campaign is now asking the public for at least $200,000 to fix what years of neglect, pests, and break-ins have done to the final resting place of some of the region's most storied pioneers.
The effort traces back to early 2025, when four friends started out simply cleaning headstones by hand, according to Inland Empire Community News. That grassroots cleanup has since grown into a structured preservation project led by Jenon Anderson-Reise, now backed by the Rotary Club of San Bernardino and Arrowhead United Way. On Saturday, the groups partnered with the City of San Bernardino to host paid walking tours of the cemetery, a fundraiser that brought in around $1,000 toward the larger goal, as reported by the San Bernardino Sun.
Famous Names Buried Among the Sinking Stones
Pioneer Memorial Cemetery holds the graves of Virginia Earp, mother of Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp — the brothers known for the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, per the Sun's reporting. Also interred there is Richard Ralphs, associated with the family that founded the Ralphs grocery store chain. The cemetery is the resting place of William Francis “Grizzly Bill” Holcomb, whose May 1860 gold discovery in Holcomb Valley sparked Southern California's largest gold rush, according to the Historical Marker Database.
The grounds also hold the grave of James Earp's wife, Bessie Earp, who died in 1887, along with Elizabeth “Lizzy” Rowan, recognized as one of San Bernardino's first African American pioneers, Inland Empire Community News reports. Tour organizers used youth reenactors during the fundraiser to share those pioneers' stories, a detail the outlet says was meant to broaden public understanding of who is buried there beyond the famous Old West lawmen.
What Is Actually Breaking the Monuments
Tawnya Rhoades-Hensley, president of San Bernardino Rotary, said at least $200,000 is needed for a grounds refresh, per the Sun. The planned restoration includes installing lights, repairing fencing, pest control, an irrigation system, and restroom construction. Project leaders say burrowing pests have severely undermined the ground supporting grave markers, causing some to sink or lean. Some monuments have also fractured amid aging, uneven ground, and the lack of an irrigation system, per the same Inland Empire Community News account.
Restoration leaders emphasize that grounds management is required to prevent cleaned monuments from simply sinking back into the mud. Decades of soft ground and unmaintained turf have reportedly submerged multiple historic tombstones, and Anderson-Reise hopes to find a ground-penetrating radar partner to locate obscured markers before attempting to raise them, the outlet notes.
A History of Break-Ins Alongside Natural Decay
The cemetery's troubles aren't limited to soil and insects. In May 2024, vandals pried open a cemetery entry gate with a crowbar, stole three markers, damaged tombstones, and dug up an urn, scattering human ashes across the grounds, according to Inland Empire Community News coverage from that time. The incident prompted family members to confront city leaders during council meetings, intensifying public calls for site upgrades.
That wasn't the first security measure taken at the site. In March 2022, the City of San Bernardino installed a wrought-iron perimeter fence around Pioneer Memorial Cemetery and adjacent Seccombe Lake Park to curb trespassing and encampment spillover, according to city records. Despite that fence installation, security breaches continued to occur.
City Coordination and Longer-Term Plans
Early coordination between volunteer leaders and San Bernardino city officials in late 2025 led to initial site improvements, including the removal of dead trees and changes to the municipal lawn maintenance vendor, per the same account from Inland Empire Community News. Project organizers state that long-term preservation requires formal city authorization, a reminder that the city has held legal responsibility over the burial ground since acquiring the initial plot in April 1857 and establishing a dedicated municipal endowment care fund for perpetual site care in 1922.
The cemetery's layered history reaches back even further. In 1989, construction workers uncovered 12 pioneer graves during work at nearby Seccombe Lake Park, leading archaeologists to relocate and reinter the historical remains at Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, according to a Wikipedia entry on the site. Seccombe Lake had previously served as an unmarked burial area for 1850s settlers.
Organizers say the Saturday fundraising push will continue as they work toward the full $200,000 goal. Potential donors can contact San Bernardino Rotary at (951) 233-5070 or by email at [email protected].
