Local Sacramento News about Historic Mormon Island Cemetary and segragated head stones with the N-Word. There is a strong history of Mormon involvement in Californias gold rush. Samuel Brennan being one of my favorite characters. John Marshall discovered the gold to start it up. The city of Folsom has a history museum with a lot of information about Mormon influence in the area. And about 5 years ago I volunteered to help at a history festival that I was suprised to find had a heavy presence of local members including a lot of actors for Mormon living history scenes. Strange that first annual event was the only one. The link is about a local news story about some head stones at a historic cemetary. Given early racism in TSCC I am suspect at the volunteer involvement of Folsom prison inmates. Of course there is nothing in the story to link the church to this story... only the name of Mormon Island Cemetary.

http://www.fox40.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=mormon+island&target=adv_article

I am torn if the gravestones should be remade to eliminate the offensive word. I think the damage is on the Mormon connection and I don't want the white washing. Since the inmates are offering to remake the headstones for "free" no charge to tax payers... my conspiracy theory is a certain church is secretly funding the inmates efforts to remove the embarrasing word from the grave stones. Just sayin'



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2011 01:00PM by Taddlywog.

I think you should take your tinfoil hat off for a minute, let your brain rest, and back away slowly from the interwebs.

A part of my wonders why this is getting so much play in the local news. Is it the N-word, or the fact that prisoners are offering to change historical markers for free? These head stones are from the 1800's. They would have laid there if the offer to change had not been made.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2011 01:41PM by Taddlywog.

I was kind of wondering if the descendants of those buried in the cemetery were maybe putting up a fuss. I would think, if it were my ancestor with that ugly word on his or her gravestone, I'd be ALL OVER getting a new one. That the prison dudes offered to handle it for free... that's just cool.

First of all, it won't be for "free" that they do this. It is done with materials taxpayers have given, just as grudgingly as we paid tithing at one time.

Second of all, why clean up history. It's history and needs to stand. I think we do more damage to future generations by whitewashing history.

Let it stay. Let the inmates do something more constructive.

How can they say it is for free when the tax payers are paying for everything the prisioners have? This is not a community service project. The only reason it is a news story is because of the prisioners volunteering. It is really a weird story. And so out from no where after 150 years.

Taddlywog: In 1954 the graves at the historic N----- Hill cemetery were moved to the Mormon Island Relocation Cemetery. The name N----- Hill has nothing to do with the Mormons. The grave markers in question were not historic, but made in 1954 to mark the burials of unknown individuals.

What irritates me is that some of the activists are claiming that that the original name of the mining camp was actually "Negro Hill" and that the people who made the 1954 markers were racists who changed it to "N------ Hill." This is ridiculous. I went to Google books, typed in "N------ Hill California" and quickly retrieved about dozen examples of "N----- Hill" dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Like it or not, the version with the n-word is the historic name.

I live a mile from Negro Bar, its a beautiful spot on the American River. Negro Hill doesn't seem so unfeasible. This is such an odd issue.

You just realized this? I live between Casa Roble HS and American River Canyon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2011 03:33PM by Taddlywog.

Awesome my 8 year old lovez dinosaurs he would be an easy convert. We could have a fun exmo bbq at Lew Howard Park sometime. Eloher and Andy the Eminent have some some cute kids and its a nice park.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2011 07:57PM by Taddlywog.

...for a very long time. I'm not sure what the half-life is of those things, but I think they reflect the realities of the day.

We can't really erase our history, and it's probably not good to.

We need these reminders of our racist past, and recognize that we still have people who practice racism.

Older headstones were made from a softer material;

Granite lasts a long, long time.

I don't agree with changing them because it is a piece of history.