The Old Uppertown Cemetery is located on the north side of Freeway 50 off Mosquito Road. As you head north under the freeway, park in the area to your left, and carefully walk across Mosquito Road. There is a flight of stairs to the top where the cemetery is located.

A much better place to park: 1300 Pinecrest Ct, where First Lutheran Church is located. They have a large parking lot that is normally empty. Cemetery entrance is at west end of parking lot.

Placerville, aka Hangtown, was a major stop for gold seekers heading to the mines or to Sacramento from back east. Back then, Upper Placerville was a separate town from Placerville.

The cemetery was started in 1850 with the first known burials, the oldest being Rev Amariah Kallock. Currently there are about 200 people buried here, some marked, some not. Most likely there are older graves that are now unmarked as wooden markers were normal during the early years and have long since disappeared.

The cemetery land was donated by Uppertown's leading family, the Crockers, many of whom are buried here. These Crockers are no relation to Charles or Edwin Crocker the Central Pacific railroad men. Patriarch Benjamin Crocker was co-owner of the highly successful Crocker Brother's Store, located on Broadway, where the Mosquito Road freeway overpass is today.

Crocker's trip west in 1851 was noteworthy. He became stranded on Panama's west coast with hundreds of other California bound hopefuls, many of whom carried yellow fever, malaria or cholera. They ultimately booked passage to San Francisco on an overcrowded, leaky, tub that sputtered along for weeks with inadequate food and water supplies. Sickness was rampant. Many died before the derelict boat drifted into San Diego. After recuperating several weeks, Crocker headed north and found Sacramento devastated by the floods of 1851.

By the time he got to Placerville in 1952 he was penniless and desperate. Passing a boarding house on Main Street, an old friend from the Wisconsin lead mines that he'd worked so hard to escape called out to him.

The friend helped Crocker get on his feet. A stint in local mines followed, then he opened his first store. Uppertown, and Crocker, prospered in the pre-railroad era when all the supplies for the Comstock came thru Placerville and Uppertown on wagons.

Among the many unmarked graves in Uppertown Cemetery is that of Henry Delauney. In 1915 the 42-year-old miner laid his head on a "stick of giant powder with suicidal intent" and lit the fuse, with predictable results. See sidebar. Suicides were far more common in an era with no social safety nets in place. Rest in peace, Henry.

For generations the Uppertown Cemetery has benefited from the stewardship of the Wigglesworth family, the last remnant of which still resides adjacent to the cemetery, as of 2026.

Uppertown Cemetery is owned, managed, and maintained by the City of Placerville. This is a closed cemetery. Plots are not sold, but burials are still occasionally conducted in old family plots.