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American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project

Internet Presentation

Version 112019

 

OLEA RANCH CEMETERY

 

 

In the winter/spring of 2007 good friend Diane Bain told me her husband Bill and two friends, Bill Snider and Ralph Goodall, rode ATV’s in the Alamo Lake area of Arizona. Diane asked if APCRP knew anything about an abandoned Pioneer Cemetery approximately 4 miles up Santa Maria River from Alamo Lake.

 

 

Single Headstone of 18 graves at Olea Ranch Cemetery

Photo by: Neal Du Shane c. 2007

 

Having not been in this area previously I asked Diane if she would connect me with the three guys and ask them to show me the site. We connected and the guys took me to the Cemetery and it is posted on the APCRP website and is known as “OLEA RANCH CEMETERY”.

 

After exploring the concrete trailer pads which comprised the former Three Rivers Ranch Headquarters we mounted up to explore the cemetery. As we were exiting the old ranch site I noticed what looked like a single grave on the left side of the road. After researching the rocks we discovered it was in fact an adult male’s grave.

 

We are trying to work with BLM in hopes they have some historical records of this site and cemetery. At this point nothing has turned up other that what Ralph and the Bill’s have been able to document from local historians. 

 

18 + 2 unmarked graves at Olea Ranch Cemetery c. 2007

Photo by: Neal Du Shane

 

As the picture above indicates, these 18 graves were not very deep as the rocks are piled on the surface of the ground about 18” high. There are wooden posts with numbering from 1 through 18 at the head of each grave. It is obvious someone was recording the names of those interred. But who has these records? If you know of anyone that can provide historical information on this site please have them contact me.

 

ADDENDUM 2012:

By Neal Du Shane

 

 

L-R, Rick Fuller, Bonnie Helten, Jennifer Fuller

Photo by Neal Du Shane

 

On March 9, 2012 Rick & Jennifer Fuller provided several APCRP Boosters a one of a kind tour of the area on ATV’s. Rick’s family had most of the land in and about what is now Alamo Lake and all the land past and including the Palmerita Ranch. Some 160 sections which represents approximately 102,400 acres including the Palmerita Ranch.

 

Shelley Rasmussen & Jennifer Fuller research

Olea Ranch Cemetery

Photo by: Bonnie Helten

Jennifer Fuller & Neal Du Shane research

Olea Ranch Cemetery

Photo by: Bonnie Helten

 

According to Rick the eighteen graves belonged to the Olea Ranch which sat on the opposite side (North) of Santa Maria River. The Olea Ranch had approximately 100 acres of irrigated land. It ceased operations in the 1940’s, once the Alamo Lake was approved the cemetery has sat neglected and derelict. There are one headstone and 18 numbered sticks. We were able to identify two more graves here bringing the total count to 20, between the mounded grave sites but the two are not mounded like the rest.

 

Rick stated that as soon as Alamo Lake was approved, his father’s original ranch headquarters were going to be in the lake, so they moved their operation farther up river (east) to what is now the cement slabs and they in fact called it the Three Rivers Ranch Headquarters. Rick indicated the slab with the “L” brackets sticking up was the school house. But the Three Rivers Ranch had nothing to do with the eighteen graves of the Olea Ranch.

 

Ricks family lived at and operated the Palmerita Ranch up until 1972 when they incorporated, Rick remained the general manager of the corporation for another ten years.

 

 

11/4/07 Ralph Goodall submitted:

 

We recently learned from Carl, the former longtime owner of the Wayside Inn on old Alamo Rd that the concrete pads were indeed mainly for trailers (as you thought), and was the site of a ranch called Three Rivers Ranch.  Carl was familiar with this ranch and the others around there, such as Palmerita Ranch and Date Creek Ranch.  He told us he had lived there all his life (and I am not sure how old he is, but probably at least in his mid-70's), and had cleared land and worked these ranches and farms all his younger life. 
 
Carl sold Wayside Inn this past spring and does not reside there anymore, but apparently he still comes back to visit regularly.  The new owners who purchased in the spring had a major setback a few weeks ago--the entire Wayside Inn building burned to the ground.  They are planning to rebuild, and are actively looking for another pre-fab building.  There are still many full and part-time RV residents living at this park.

 

 

 

L-R Bill Snider, Bill Bain, Ralph Goodall – 2007

Photo by: Neal Du Shane

 

11/16/07 Gill Goodall submitted:

 

While we were up at Alamo lake last month, we made an attempt to locate the cemetery that you showed me from an old topographical quad map, indicating the probable location of the cemetery associated with the old town of Alamo (now under the lake somewhere).  We pretty much zeroed in on the GPS coordinates and could recognize we were in about the right place based on the topographical contours, but could not find anything.  Bill did try dowsing around the area on another day after I left, but said he could not find any indications of bodies.  I know the lake has raised up over this area several times in past years during major flood inflows from the river, which has surely made any cemetery indications very difficult to find.

 

 

View of Santa Maria River Valley, from former Three Rivers Ranch Headquarters 2007,

Photo by: Neal Du Shane

 

 

 

 

American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project

Internet Presentation

 

Version 112019

 

WebMaster: Neal Du Shane

 

n.j.dushane@apcrp.org

 

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for personal family history purposes, but not for financial profit of any kind.
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