ICF
team delineating the boundaries of the historical cemetery in town site of Boca,
located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Truckee, California.BOCA CEMETERY RESTORATION PROJECT, MAY 29, 2004
ICF
team delineating the boundaries of the historical cemetery in town site of Boca,
located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Truckee, California.
Starting
in 1866, the Central Pacific Railroad was laying tracks over the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. A construction camp was set up at the junction
of the Truckee River and Little Truckee River, and soon become known as Boca,
"mouth" in Spanish.
Boca was well known for its lumber and ice industries but its biggest claim
to fame was its brewery. The brewery was established in 1876 and was destroyed
by a fire in 1893. In its heyday, Boca’s brewery produced 30,000 barrels
of lager beer each year.
The
town of Boca was mostly men who worked for the ice or lumber industries. But
by 1873, the town had enough children that a school was built. By 1876 the town
had a post office, telegraph office, train depot, hotel, Chinese laundry, general
store, butcher shop, brothel, blacksmith shop, saloons, along with its sawmill,
ice house and brewery.
Ice
was shipped throughout the west, the expanding produce industry and the development
of insulated railroad cars greatly stimulated the ice industry. With ice from
Boca, fresh California produce could be shipped anywhere in the country. Ice
was also used in the Comstock silver mines to cool the deep underground tunnels
where temperatures would reach 140F. Due to the furious competition between
the various ice companies, it was decided to combine all operations and, in
1881, Union Ice Company was formed. Ice production was greatly reduced in the
1880’s when the Comstock mining era ended and by the turn of the century
modern refrigeration and man made ice production took over natural ice harvesting.
The sawmill closed in 1908 because of lack of lumber, every tree near Boca had been harvested without regard to conservation. By the early 1920’s the town of Boca was being dismantled.
Today
there isn’t much left of the remains of the old town of Boca except some
concrete foundations from a few of the old icehouses near the railroad tracks.
Other remains can be seen near the foot of the Boca dam and beneath Boca Reservoir
whenever the water level is low.
In
1996 the U.S. Forest service opened an interpretive trail through what was the
town of Boca. The trail leads to an old cemetery where some of Boca’s
long forgotten citizens are buried. Very little is known about who is buried
in this cemetery, as records are lost. Just a few head stones remain.
In
May 2004, our team was asked by US Forest Service archaeologist Carrie Smith,
to help with the restoration process of the cemetery. We were asked to look
for lost unmarked graves and identify the long lost cemetery boundaries. By
using our canine’s abilities to locate graves, a total of 56 unmarked
graves were found and marked; and boundaries are now more clearly defined.
At first when Eva
and Adela started we were very worried about the difficult terrain. Sagebrush,
dead stumps from sagebrush that had been cut down and very uneven landscape.
But the conditions were very good and Riley and Ness were able to locate many
unmarked graves. As we viewed the flags we could clearly see rows forming.
We
mapped the site for the US Forest Service and metal stakes were placed in the
ground to mark the newly found graves. Kelly and Carrie were thrilled with what
we did.
For more information on the historic town site of Boca go to:
Truckee - Donner
Historical Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 893, Truckee, CA. 96160
(530) 582-0893
http://truckeehistory.tripod.com/history13.htm
