Bipartisan support essential to preserve Negro Bar, California State Park

Lakeside Memorial Lawn Cemetery is located at 1201 Forrest Street in Folsom, California and includes five historic burial grounds.

These cemeteries all flow together and it is difficult to designate where one starts and one finishes. They are: The Negro Bar Cemetery (later referred to as Citizens Cemetery); The Cook’s or American Legion Cemetery (later referred to as the Citizens Cemetery as well); The Jewish Cemetery (est about 1861); The Odd Fellows Cemetery and The Masonic Cemetery.

The Negro Bar Cemetery was originally associated with the Negro Bar mining camp just up the river, which is a State Historical Site. Burials at this cemetery started as early as 1846-1849.

References to the Citizens Cemetery appear in church records and newspaper obituaries until 1942. In addition there is a Chinese Cemetery separate from the other five and closed to the public due to vandalism.

There is also a New Masonic Cemetery (est about 1924) but there are no markers as to where it is located. There is also a small baby land located on the circle drive across from the main cemetery.

The original Odd Fellows and Masonic Cemeteries were purchased jointly by the Granite Lodge of Odd Fellows and the Natoma Lodge of Masons in 1862, although some sources indicate burials for those lodges were already taking place in these cemeteries as early as 1850. Huge old California Date Palms surround the Odd Fellows Cemetery and Cedar of Lebanon trees are planted within the Masonic Cemetery.