Seated is Assemblyman Rowland standing is his brother The Sage of Lake Tahoe

Tahoe Historic Pioneer Cemetery is located at 790 Alameda Avenue, South Lake Tahoe

The Cemetery's history

1866 – Thomas Rowland starts the town of Rowland Station & dedicates a plot of land for a cemetery

1908 –  The land in Al Tahoe is deeded  from A.R. Sprague, Sophronia Rowland & Fannie Barton to the Al Tahoe Company

1916 ‐ Al Tahoe Company transfers ownership to W.J. Wallace

1931 – W.J. Wallace transfers Al Tahoe property to W.J. Wallace & Company

1933 – W.J. Wallace & Company transfers Block 34 to Esther Heron, which includes the cemetery 

1946 – Esther Heron transfers Block 34 to Aram Harootunian, with said portion of block (Lots 2,3,4) reserved for use as a cemetery

1966 – Owners Aram Harootunian and his wife, Stella Harootunian, deeded Lots 2,3,4 in Block 34, i.e. Al Tahoe Historic Pioneer Cemetery, to the City of South Lake Tahoe – ownership confirmed in October of 2019, by the City Attorney

There are 12 remaining grave markers and 37 known burials.

The earliest burial was in 1861 & the last burial was in 1959.

By 1851, year-round posts were established and settlers became permanent residents on Washoe land. One of the early settlements in Lake Tahoe was Rowlands Station. It included shops, a hotel, and later, the schoolhouse. This community was at the Lake’s edge and the cemetery was outside of the settlement. The first owner of the area that would later be known as Al Tahoe, was former California State Assemblyman Thomas Benton Rowland.

Before the white settlers came to the area now known as Lake Tahoe, the Washoe (Wa She Shu) people were in the region for thousands of years. The Wa She Shu had a name for the lake, Da ow aga. Lake Tahoe was the center of the universe for the Wa She Shu tribe. The area by the cemetery was where the tribe summered and it was called Imgi Wata, meaning “where the big fish run”.

Washoe couple at Lake Tahoe. Photo from The Saga of Lake Tahoe.

Washoe settlement at Rowlands Station from The Saga of Lake Tahoe, .

The cemetery in South Lake Tahoe is the Al Tahoe Pioneer Cemetery, located at 790 Alameda Avenue, and is the only historic cemetery in the Lake Tahoe basin. It is the final resting place for some of Tahoe’s earliest settlersType your paragraph here.

The earliest burial of record in the cemetery was Richard Peters, buried in February 1868. Although the location of his burial is unknown, Thomas B. Rowland was buried in the cemetery in 1883. The last known burial was Fannie M. Rowland Barton in April 1959

Over the years, the Al Tahoe area, including the cemetery, was bought and sold five times. In 1966, Mr. Aram Harootunian, a local realtor, deeded the cemetery to the City of South Lake Tahoe..

Partners on the restoration of the Pioneer Cemetery

Rowlands Station from The Saga of Lake Tahoe

Preserving Tahoe's History

Land for the cemetery was donated to the community by Assemblyman Rowland and his wife, Sophronia Dow Rowland in the second half of the 19th century.

Certificate of ownership to the City of South Lake Tahoe

​Al Tahoe Pioneer Cemetery

Lake Tahoe History Museum  530.541.5458