The Cemetery at The Hights is a small, informal cemetery in what is now Joaquin Miller Park.
When Joaquin Miller owned The Hights, he constructed The Funeral Pyre with the intention of having his body cremated there. By the time he died in 1913, state law prohibited "backyard" cremations, so he had to settle for having his body cremated at the Oakland Crematorium and his ashes scattered at the pyre. But even before he died, some people had their remains interred in the cemetery.
The exact location is unknown, but a hand-drawn map and other clues suggest it was near the pyre.
A list of the known residents:
- Shirley Brodt (1899) - son of Helen Tanner Brodt and A.W. Brodt
- Margaret Miller (1905) - Joaquin Miller's mother (src)
- Helen Tanner Brodt (1908) - artist and namesake of Lake Helen in Lassen NP
- Joaquin Miller (1913)
- Carrie Rand Sterling (1918) - wife of poet George Sterling (src)
In 1898, Miller said that a woman in Paris had expressed a wish to have her ashes scattered at The Funeral Pyre, and following her death, he sent for the body and carried out her wishes. 1
Links and References
- Joaquin Miller Has Built His Own Funeral Pyre San Francisco Call, October 9, 1898
