Since You Asked: What's the story of the old Yuba City Cemetery?

Q: I'd like to know about the cemetery on the north side of Bridge Street, east of Shasta Street. I've passed it countless times and have never seen anyone there either visiting a gravesite or maintaining it.

A: Now barely noticeable from the hubbub of Bridge Street, the old Yuba City Cemetery was once the place to be buried.

Now, "hardly anyone goes there," said Yuba City resident Frank Coats, who probably knows more than anyone about the 160-year-old boneyard, which includes about 1,300 identified graves and plenty more that aren't.

It dates from about 1850, when the original Yuba City was south of Bridge Street. The cemetery was just outside of town.

"Only a couple of graves get flowers regularly. No one shows up for Memorial Day services; I don't think there was one this year," Coats said — even though veterans of the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and both world wars are buried there.

The Sutter Cemetery District, whose influence extends far beyond the cemetery in the town of Sutter, "owns" it, Coats said.

The cemetery was a somewhat "equal opportunity" resting place despite its existence in a time when some people were less tolerant.

An African American resident of Marysville, Henry King bery, is buried there, and his grave is not segregated, Coats said.

A Chinese couple were buried there in the 1920s, and several Japanese people are there, too, though "on the eastern margin." Recently, a Buddhist priest came from the Marysville Buddhist Church to perform a ceremony at the Japanese graves, he said.

No Jewish symbols can be found on gravestones, and Catholics were mostly buried in Marysville, Coats said.

"Lots and lots of Masons and Odd Fellows, not so many crosses and Christian symbols. This was a Masonic community, not particularly a Christian one, if you are trying to figure out the culture," he said.

The city once operated the mausoleum on the cemetery's north side but sold it to a church about 30 years ago.

"I assume some families still own the right to put ashes into niches in the mausoleum," Coats said.

Graves on the east and south lawns of the mausoleum, apparently those of World War II servicemen, are "problematic" because they "are not treated as included in the Yuba City Cemetery," he said.

Anyone who wants a walking tour of the cemetery can contact Coats at 701-6116 or at fecoats@msn .com

Since You Asked appears on Mondays. Send questions to reporter Rob Young at the Appeal-Democrat, 1530 Ellis Lake Drive, Marysville, CA 95901, e-mail him at ryoung@ appealdemocrat or call 749-4710.