A stage stop was built here in 1852. The Butterfield Overland Stage line from 1857 to 1861 as a resting place used it for Dragoons and camel caravans from Fort Tejon. Many pioneers are buried here in the Eternal Valley Cemetery.
It's hard from the default picture to tell how big this book is, but it's huge. It's about 20' tall and 40' wide.
The book reads:
“In 1769 Spanish padres sent out by Father Junipero Serra recommended this property as a mission site. It became instead a farm and ranch for the San Fernando Mission.
A stagecoach stop called Lyon Station was established here in 1854 and by the end of the Civil War interments had been made in this cemetery.
In 1888 when the property was acquired by Henry Clay Needham, it came to be known as the Needham family cemetery.
This beautiful area is now being used as an endowment care Memorial Park, whose founders are dedicated to perpetuation of its great pioneer traditions.
This is a very old cemetery and is well worth the trip for the old horse-drawn hearse near the entrance, the many famous and near-famous people interred here (including a Veterans burial area up the hill from the entrance), and the various plaques, markers and memorials on the grounds.
Gravesite of Henry Clay Needham
Another Needham Family Gravesite
Lyon Family Plot
Old horse-drawn hearse
What a very interesting history and I love that old hearse. You are making me wish I could visit all these places!
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