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Graveyard Rabbit of South Alameda County by Cheryl Palmer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Lone Tree Cemetery and it's Legend




As promised I visited Lone Tree Cemetery recently. Now I know I had posted that this cemetery was listed as "haunted". I visited during the day so I really can't give an objective view regarding if it is "haunted." My view of this cemetery is that it has the most gorgeous settings! Pictures will be posted in the future.

This posting however is to give you a little history on this cemetery. This cemetery has a legend. The basic story goes something like this ~

A few hundred years ago a young Spanish couple came riding through the area and stopped to eat at an old hacienda where many travelers stopped for room and board. After their lunch, they took off on fresh horses towards and area called LONE TREE. This was the only tree seen for miles from this wide open area.

Hours later an old Spaniard came to the same hacienda looking for the young couple, he claimed to be the girls father. The owner of the hacienda pointed him in the direction of LONE TREE, and the old Spaniard took off in that direction.

A few hours later the old Spaniard came back by the hacienda and said his good byes, he was heading back to his home in New Mexico. As night fell the owner became leery as the young couple hadn't returned for their nights stay at the hacienda. Morning came and they still hadn't returned. The owner sent some men out to look for the young man and his bride, surprisingly finding them flat on the ground side by side, both shot. The old Spaniard didn't approve of the two eloping and saw to settling the situation in his own way, and went on home.

The tragedy of the romance stirred a few men. They acquired several acres of land and choose to make the area where the young couple were found a cemetery. The couple was found by the LONE TREE, therefore the cemetery was named the "Lone Tree Cemetery."

The cemetery has had other trees planted on it's site since this time, and lawn has been added. The original "Lone Tree" however is still on the site!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting story. Thanks for sharing it. :)

Cheryl Palmer said...

Glad you enjoyed it Amy!

Diane Wright said...

I love the story! I want to go see it for myself!

Cheryl Palmer said...

Travels Wright, glad it inspired you this way! Maybe you will be able to visit one day, you never know! ;-)