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Internet Presentation
Version 112019
In the winter/spring of
2007 good friend Diane Bain told me her husband Bill and two friends, Bill
Snider and Ralph Goodall, rode ATV’s in the Alamo Lake area of Arizona. Diane
asked if APCRP knew anything about an abandoned Pioneer Cemetery approximately
4 miles up Santa Maria River from Alamo Lake.
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Single Headstone of 18
graves at Olea Ranch Cemetery
Photo by: Neal Du Shane
c. 2007
Having not been in this
area previously I asked Diane if she would connect me with the three guys and
ask them to show me the site. We connected and the guys took me to the Cemetery
and it is posted on the APCRP website and is known as “OLEA RANCH CEMETERY”.
After exploring the
concrete trailer pads which comprised the former Three Rivers Ranch
Headquarters we mounted up to explore the cemetery. As we were exiting the old
ranch site I noticed what looked like a single grave on the left side of the
road. After researching the rocks we discovered it was in fact an adult male’s
grave.
We are trying to work
with BLM in hopes they have some historical records of this site and cemetery.
At this point nothing has turned up other that what Ralph and the Bill’s have
been able to document from local historians.
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18 + 2 unmarked graves
at Olea Ranch Cemetery c. 2007
Photo by: Neal Du Shane
As the picture above
indicates, these 18 graves were not very deep as the rocks are piled on the
surface of the ground about 18” high. There are wooden posts with numbering
from 1 through 18 at the head of each grave. It is obvious someone was
recording the names of those interred. But who has these records? If you know
of anyone that can provide historical information on this site please have them
contact me.
ADDENDUM 2012:
By Neal Du Shane
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L-R,
Rick Fuller, Bonnie Helten, Jennifer Fuller Photo
by Neal Du Shane |
On March 9, 2012 Rick
& Jennifer Fuller provided several APCRP Boosters a one of a kind tour of
the area on ATV’s. Rick’s family had most of the land in and about what is now Alamo Lake and all the land past and including the Palmerita Ranch. Some 160 sections which
represents approximately 102,400 acres including the Palmerita
Ranch.
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Shelley
Rasmussen & Jennifer Fuller research Olea Ranch Cemetery Photo
by: Bonnie Helten |
Jennifer
Fuller & Neal Du Shane research Olea Ranch
Cemetery Photo
by: Bonnie Helten |
According to Rick the
eighteen graves belonged to the Olea Ranch which sat
on the opposite side (North) of Santa Maria River. The Olea
Ranch had approximately 100 acres of irrigated land. It ceased operations in
the 1940’s, once the Alamo Lake was approved the
cemetery has sat neglected and derelict. There are one headstone and 18
numbered sticks. We were able to identify two more graves here bringing the
total count to 20, between the mounded grave sites but the two are not mounded
like the rest.
Rick stated that as soon
as Alamo Lake was approved, his father’s original ranch headquarters were going
to be in the lake, so they moved their operation farther up river (east) to
what is now the cement slabs and they in fact called it the Three Rivers Ranch
Headquarters. Rick indicated the slab with the “L” brackets sticking up was the
school house. But the Three Rivers Ranch had nothing to do with the eighteen
graves of the Olea Ranch.
Ricks family lived at
and operated the Palmerita Ranch up until 1972 when
they incorporated, Rick remained the general manager of the corporation for
another ten years.
11/4/07
Ralph Goodall submitted:
We
recently learned from Carl, the former longtime owner of the Wayside Inn on old
Alamo Rd that the concrete pads were indeed mainly for trailers (as you
thought), and was the site of a ranch called Three Rivers Ranch. Carl was
familiar with this ranch and the others around there, such as Palmerita Ranch and Date Creek Ranch. He told us he
had lived there all his life (and I am not sure how old he is, but probably at
least in his mid-70's), and had cleared land and worked these ranches and farms
all his younger life.
Carl sold Wayside Inn this past spring and does not reside there anymore, but
apparently he still comes back to visit regularly. The new owners who
purchased in the spring had a major setback a few weeks ago--the entire Wayside
Inn building burned to the ground. They are planning to rebuild, and are
actively looking for another pre-fab building.
There are still many full and part-time RV residents living at this park.
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L-R Bill Snider, Bill
Bain, Ralph Goodall – 2007
Photo by: Neal Du Shane
11/16/07
Gill Goodall submitted:
While
we were up at Alamo lake last month, we made an attempt to locate the cemetery
that you showed me from an old topographical quad map, indicating the probable
location of the cemetery associated with the old town of Alamo (now under the
lake somewhere). We pretty much zeroed in on the GPS coordinates and
could recognize we were in about the right place based on the topographical
contours, but could not find anything. Bill did try dowsing around the
area on another day after I left, but said he could not find any indications of
bodies. I know the lake has raised up over this
area several times in past years during major flood inflows from the river,
which has surely made any cemetery indications very difficult to find.
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View of Santa Maria
River Valley, from former Three Rivers Ranch Headquarters 2007,
Photo by: Neal Du Shane
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Internet Presentation
Version 112019
WebMaster:
Neal Du Shane
Copyright
© 2003-2019 Neal Du Shane
All rights reserved. Information contained within this
website may be used
for personal family history purposes, but not for financial profit of any kind.
All contents of this website are willed to the American Pioneer & Cemetery
Research Project (APCRP).
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