Episode transcription
Olivia Allen Price: San Francisco has long been a tough place to die. In 1900, burials within San Francisco city limits were prohibited. After about 10 years, most of the buried dead were exhumed and transported to Colma. This was the law in San Francisco, with a few exceptions.
Today’s story takes us to the Presidio and talks about a unique burial site for pets, not humans.
(dog barking)
Today’s question comes from Willow. They are Marin residents and parents to an adorable 8-pound schnoodle named Bluebell. Bluebells are small, gray, fluffy-haired dogs that are notorious fighters.
(dog growls)
What Willow wanted to know…
Willow Baker: I was wondering what the story behind the pet cemetery was. I used to drive by it all the time and wonder how it started, who cares for it, and if you can still bury your pets here.
Olivia Allen-Price: I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This week on Bay Curious, we head to the Presidio Pet Cemetery to explore this special land that’s home to more than 400 pets. Please stay with us.
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Olivia Allen-Price: To answer Willow’s questions about the Presidio Pet Cemetery, we brought in KQED’s Bay Curious Intern Ana de Almeida Amaral.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: I ended up on the north side of the Presidio, on what was like a back street. It feels quiet except for the huge freeway overpass directly above us. It is the entrance ramp to the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m at the pet cemetery with Rob Thompson, a federal preservation officer with the Presidio Trust.
Rob Thompson: Mostly dogs and cats are buried here, but we sometimes see goldfish as well. There’s also an iguana. There are also birds.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: We step through a short white picket fence and into a cemetery a little larger than a tennis court. And as I was walking around, I realized that it was much more beautiful than I expected.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: If you drive by, you might not realize it’s a cemetery because it’s filled with pink, magenta, and white flowers. That’s beautiful.
Just beyond the cemetery is a picturesque view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Rob and I begin reading the grave marker. We found a sign that said “Woody, the Great Wiener Dog.” Another says, “Frodo was a good turtle.” And some simply say: “We know love. We had this little dog.”
Although 420 burials have been recorded here, the cemetery doesn’t actually have the neat rows you might imagine, but rather large flower bushes and grave markers peeking out. Most graves are made of wood and painted white, but some have beautiful granite or stone grave markers. As you walk through the cemetery, you begin to feel the love that is manifesting in this place.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: There’s a tombstone that just says, “Coco, we loved you.”
The story of pet cemeteries begins long before pet cemeteries were established.
Rob Thompson: So right now we’re in an area of the Presidio called Cavalry Bowl. The area has a long history, with over 100 years of animal control by the Army. Today there are four cavalry stables in our immediate vicinity, which once housed up to 100 horses and mules. Because, in fact, for most of the 19th century and about half of the 20th century, the Army literally ran on horsepower.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: And this area is where those animals lived. As you know, the Presidio back then (1800s and early 1900s) was very different from the serene and picturesque national park of today. It was an active military base filled with barracks, offices, and soldiers in training. What is noteworthy is that most of the men stationed here were single. This is because before the 20th century, many men in the lower ranks of the military were not allowed to marry.
Rob Thompson: That really started to change after World War II, when the Army got bigger and we started to see more and more women and families as a demographic, not just in the Army but in the country as a whole.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: After World War II, a baby boom occurred across the country and within the Presidio. And within a few years, the Presidio was no longer just a home for single men, but also for their wives and children. In response, the situation changed.
Rob Thompson: They’re building something like a school here. There is a theater that many people know, a bowling alley. You know, all of these were created by the Army to serve the families that live here.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: When families started moving, so did their pets. So in 1952, Lt. Col. Joseph Swing established the Presidio Pet Cemetery for military families to rest their beloved pets. From the 1950s until the mid-’70s, families could pay a $1 fee to Boy Scout Troop 70. Boy Scouts dug graves and buried their pets. For the first 20 years of its existence, the pet cemetery was actively managed by the Boy Scouts.
I met Phil Gioia, who lived through the Presidio’s new family era, when I was stationed here in 1975. He would serve on the base and later host a wedding reception at the Presidio Officers Club. He remembers how unique it was that the pet cemetery was an official part of the base.
Phil Gioia: So, depending on the post, there are sort of unofficial places where pets are buried. I remember being at West Point. It was kind of an unofficial place, it wasn’t official at all, but here in the Presidio, I think it was almost official.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: But at some point, the Boy Scouts stopped working in cemeteries. Many of the families who buried their pets there have moved to other bases. By the mid-1970s, the cemetery had fallen into disrepair, becoming a forgotten piece of land beneath a highway overpass.
Phil Gioia: Every day on my lunch break I would run past a cemetery that was pretty dilapidated at the time. It’s kind of overgrown. Many of the small gravestones were tilted and the whole thing looked like a creepy little graveyard.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: It remained this way until a mysterious veteran was discovered repairing the cemetery. He is credited with restoring the space from disrepair, replacing many of the decaying grave markers and landscaping it. His name was mentioned in a 1976 Presidio newspaper, but he requested anonymity. He said he did it not for praise or recognition, but to honor the memory of his pup. Phil completed his military service in 1976 and left the base. But after a few years, he returned…
Phil Gioia: We had a cat named Fremont. Named after John C. Fremont. He was an army officer and was called an explorer. And my cat was always sticking his nose into things that didn’t belong. So they named it Fremont after John Fremont. And he was a great cat, he really was. We adopted him as a really small kitten. He lived for 16 years, which is quite old for a cat.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: When Fremont died, Phil called some of his friends and they went to bury him under the full moon.
Phil Gioia: So we buried him on Halloween night, and my friends knew about that cat, they’d known about him for years. . Then we went to the Presidio Officers Club, had dinner, and drank several bottles of bourbon. I’m sure so. In Cat Heaven, he plays the harp with other cats and has a great time.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: In the 90s, the Presidio was transformed from a military base into a national park. The pet cemetery became part of this national park and officially closed to new burials in 1994. However, if you pay close attention to the dates on the tombstones, it seems that this is not realistic. Some of the dates on grave markers indicate that burials occurred in the early 2000s. It’s one of the few places in the city where burials have been allowed over the past 100 years, and San Franciscans seem to be taking advantage of it. But Presidio Trust’s Rob says it’s not really safe to do that.
Rob Thompson: I would say today that burials are no longer allowed, mainly because most of this is filled in, but the soil here is the old It’s also because it’s contaminated with lead paint from the Doyle Drive structure. Therefore, digging in the soil here is not in anyone’s interest.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: After learning all this about pet cemeteries, I wanted to bring my questioner, Willow, here. So we stopped at a cemetery and looked around together and read some of the grave markers.
Willow Baker: Raspberries says: Basset is gone. I know we had to break up, but she is with me every day with a loving heart from Ken. ”
Willow Baker: Having a space dedicated to your pet is really special. We create space to honor them because they give us so much love. And if they continue to live on in some way…I think that would be great. I don’t know.
Ana de Almeida Amaral: Well, you can share as much as you want, but a lot has changed for you since you submitted that question.
Willow Baker: Unfortunately, we had to put our family dog, Bluebell, to sleep. She was 14 years old and suddenly fell ill. She was a terrible dog. She was really bad. But we loved her.
Willow Baker: She thought she was a big dog. She got into a lot of fights. She’s fought raccoons, deer, and large dogs, and now she hopes to be terrorizing raccoons somewhere.
(smile)
Ana de Almeida Amaral: Being with Willow reminded me of how painful it is to lose a favorite furry friend. It’s been years since I remembered what a special love that transcended species boundaries felt like. This pet cemetery has existed for more than 70 years, through many states and transitions, and was brought back to life by community members, anonymous veterans, and San Franciscans who secretly have their pets laid to rest here.
Many people are interested in this small section under the bridge. I think it’s because this place exposes the truly tender side of us. It reminds us how much our pets mean to us and how much we will continue to love them even after they are gone.
Olivia Allen-Price: That was Ana de Almeida Amaral from KQED. I would like to dedicate this episode to Bluebell and her beloved fighting spirit.
Thanks to Willow Baker for this week’s question. If you have a question you’d like answered on Bay Curious, visit BayCurious.org and ask. While you’re here, be sure to sign up for the Bay Curious newsletter. Published once a month, your inbox won’t be cluttered. It features fascinating stories about the region. Again, these are all on BayCurious.org.
This Saturday, October 19, 2024, is KQED Fest! That’s right, KQED’s free block party featuring live music performances, food, art, culture and more is back by popular demand. Bay Curious will take the stage at noon to dig into some of the proposals on this year’s ballot. Please stop by and say hi. Learn more and register for free at KQED.org/live.
