Michigan Bar Cemetery in Rancho Murieta, California

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Get directions 15287 Jackson Road
Rancho Murieta, California 95683 United States

Coordinates: 38.48500, -121.07830
Cemetery ID:

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About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

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Gold was discovered in 1849 on the Cosumnes River by two men from Michigan, hence its name. The gold was collected by placer mining and the use of hydraulics, which created the irregular landscape in the area with mounds of the leftover dirt. The gold quickly ran out and the miners left for other areas.

Michigan Bar is to the east of the current town of Rancho Murieta which is a resort/retirement community formed in 1982. Prior to that Rancho Murieta was named Live Oak roughly where this cemetery is located and also Cosumne(s). Nothing remains of either Live Oak or Michigan Bar except for a historical marker for the latter.

Michigan Bar is also referred to as Live Oak Cemetery in old publications, however, there is a Live Oak Cemetery about two miles east of this cemetery on Ione Road. In the past, Michigan Bar Cemetery was also known as St. Josephs for the church that once stood on the knoll of the cemetery and is now a remembrance garden. In the late 1990s, the cemetery was taken over by the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, part of the Sacramento Diocese.

The oldest known headstone is Mary Long who died in 1877, however there were many wooden crosses and headstones that have long since disappeared per records.

The cemetery is located on Highway 16 near the Cosumnes River. It is fenced in however the gate is usually open. Beware of golf balls coming in from the 17th hole of the golf course that surrounds a majority of the cemetery.

This is still an active cemetery.