BAYLEY HOUSE, PILOT HILL, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 22, 2005

ICF Task

The Institute for Canine Forensic teams were called in to search a vast area surrounding the Bayley House to help locate the lost and unmarked Bayley family burial plot on the property.

It has been a bit of a mystery to where Bayleys are actually buried, although it is known that they are buried somewhere on the property. Mr. Bayley's wish was to be placed to rest under the trees, on a grassy knoll, overlooking the house he so proudly built.

John Wagner purchased the house in 1907. His daughter Lillian Lafaille wrote about the adventures of living in the house in the early 1900's and finding treasures in the attic.

…we had many rides down the steep banisters of the great circular staircase, and often pretended to be southern belles serving tea…

…with the awed curiosity of childhood, we wandered up the grassy slope to the picket fence where the oak trees shaded the fading wooden markers of the Bayley family burial plot…

The problem is, there are three hills approximately matching the description of the long-forgotten family burial location, and they all have large oak trees on them. The headstones have been missing for decades and the available information does not reveal any new facts.

Bayley House History

The Bayley House was completed in 1862 by Attorney and future Assemblyman Alcander John Bayley. Construction on the handsome Bayley House began in 1861, after Bayley's first hotel in Pilot Hill, the Oak Valley House burned to the ground earlier that year. Prompted by this loss and rumors that the Central Pacific Railroad would soon be built through Pilot Hill, Bayley started construction on his biggest project.
He had every reason to believe that the railroad would be routed through the trail that John C. Fremont surveyed, which ran past his property, because it had already been established as a freight hauler route. He knew that the "Big Four" railroad barons were seriously considering this Fremont Trail as the route for the railroad to take on its journey over the Sierras to become part of the first trans-continental railroad.

Nevertheless, a brilliant engineer Theodore Judah found that routing the railroad through Auburn and Dutch Flat would be easier and less expensive. His idea was eventually accepted, leaving Bayley with a massive Southern style estate in the middle of the rolling foothills of El Dorado County, one that would not realize its potential as an important and busy oasis for rail passengers. Although the Bayley House didn't serve its original purpose as a bustling hotel and stage stop, the Bayleys lived there periodically throughout the years.

Bayley House description as quoted in the official Bayley House website:

Built with 300,000 bricks that were made on location along the John Fremont Trail between Placerville and Auburn (now well traveled Hwy. 49) the Bayley House encompasses 10,000 square feet and has 22 rooms. A circular staircase climbs to the Grand Ballroom, and at the top is the "widow's walk", offering panoramic views of the Sacramento Valley, Sierra foothills, and nearby towns.
On the 640 acres surrounding the Bayley House were fruit trees, vineyards, all kinds of stock and poultry, a large barn, and a lean-to where Bayley's Chinese cook lived. Bayley and one of his sons operated a general store on the property, and in 1870 they were instrumental in organizing California's first Grange, a farmers' association, which met in the large barn on the estate.

For more details about Bayley House, visit the official Bayley House website at: http://comspark.com/bayleyhouse/

ICF Search Results

ICF teams defined and mapped the location of the Bayley family burial plot. As the story of Lillian Lafaille from the 1900s suggested, the family graves really are located up on the grassy knoll, and are shaded by majestic oak trees. Fulfilling A.J.Bayley's wishes, they are overlooking the old, beautiful and grand Bayley House…