Take a free tour Saturday, June 6, of the historic Yorba Cemetery, built on land originally part of pioneer Bernardo Yorba’s 13,000-acre Rancho Cañon de Santa Ana.
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Yorba received the land grant from the then-governor of Mexico. He grazed cattle, planted fruit orchards, vegetable gardens, a vineyard and built a grist mill on it. In his 1858 will, Yorba gave a small parcel of the property to the Catholic Church, including an adobe chapel under construction and land to build an adjacent cemetery. Today, it’s among the oldest cemeteries in Orange County, and canyon residents were buried there until it closed in 1939.
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The cemetery, created in 1859, was abandoned and defaced before becoming the property of the county in 1967. Today, interested parties can tour it on the first Saturday of the month from 10 to 11 a.m. It’s located in Woodgate Park, 6749 Parkwood Court, Yorba Linda. ocparks.com/historic-sites/historic-yorba-cemetery