Negro Hill, CA: Official Cultural Resource Study Essential For U.S. National Monument

Negro Hill Cemetery Relocation

In 1954, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District completed relocation of 13 cemeteries and private burial sites located within the inundation area of the soon-to-be complete Folsom Lake and Dam. Among them were the graves of 36 unknown settlers, buried between 1850 and 1870 in a cemetery called Negro Hill. We reinterred all of the graves at the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery in El Dorado Hills, transferring all original markers where we found them. Finding none at Negro Hill, we marked the graves with new ones, noting the name of the original cemetery by another, deeply offensive slur.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Associated Press in April, we located, and are here publishing in their entirety, our records related to this cemetery relocation project.

We don’t know why, when in so many other instances the cemetery was called Negro Hill, the new gravestones and our records use the more offensive word. Our records contain no documentation of its original designation. Yet this word appears throughout these records; in contracts, in project maps, in legal affidavits, signed by local, state, and, of course, federal officials.

We’ve read news reports of original maps of the area that may indicate the cemetery was known by the slur. However, there are also others who believe the cemetery was only ever known as Negro Hill. With no concrete evidence either way in the records we have, we can’t speculate as to why this was done or where the name originated. We can only say with certainty that it is reflective of a shameful period in American history when racial intolerance was commonplace.

Regardless of the context, we are deeply ashamed and regretful to find this word in our records, and for having perpetuated a racist, hateful word that has no place in public discourse.

Our hearts tell us these grave markers should be replaced. But we recognize and respect the ongoing discussion among community members and historians about their historical accuracy, and about finding the best way to address the offense and hurt they continue to cause. We submit these records as a contribution to that discourse. And we genuinely hope to be a part of the solution.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a project-based organization, meaning we can do work only specifically authorized, and with funding appropriated, by the United States Congress. We completed Folsom Dam in 1956, and transferred the cemetery property and its care to El Dorado County in 1954. We therefore have no known legal ability to directly participate as an agency in changing these grave markers, if in the end that is what the community chooses. We are, however, an agency of service-oriented and caring people, many of whom have already said they would volunteer their time to help make this right. In whatever way we can possibly contribute to the solution, we faithfully promise and intend to do so.

Andrew B. Kiger, P.E.
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army
District Commander