History/
Locations
Crocker and Woodman Cemeteries reflect more than a century of Big Pine’s history, preserving the stories of the people, families, and generations who helped shape our community.
Brief History of the Big Pine Cemetery District
Locations
Crocker Cemetery
605 West Crocker Avenue in Big Pine, 2 blocks west of Highway 395
Crocker Cemetery dates to Big Pine’s earliest years, with burials believed to have begun in the late 1860s and the oldest legible headstone dating to 1874. On May 2, 1892, James C. and Edwin M. Crocker conveyed the cemetery property for a symbolic five-dollar gold piece to Oliver Allerton, Alice Ober, and B.W. Thomas, as trustees for the people of Big Pine.
Over time, many of the cemetery’s early wooden markers and crosses were lost to wind, rain, snow, earthquakes, and flooding, leaving nearly 200 graves unmarked. Today, the Pioneer Memorial honors those whose resting places can no longer be identified, remembering them simply as “Unknown but not forgotten.”
Woodman Cemetery
Gregg Road, 1 mile south of Big Pine off Highway 395 &
Big Pine Dump Road
Woodman Cemetery was established in 1917, when Woodmen of the World No. 506, a Big Pine fraternal organization, purchased fifteen acres of the McDonald & Naylor tract south of town for use as a public cemetery.
Today, Woodman Cemetery is home to several important community memorials and historic features, including the Alice Piper Memorial, the Native American Memorial, and the cemetery’s historic entrance pillars. Throughout the cemetery are examples of Native American burial traditions, including grave mounds and meaningful decorations that reflect enduring customs of honoring and remembering the deceased.
Together, these features reflect the diverse people, traditions, and stories that are an important part of Big Pine’s history.
Inyo County Hospital and Farm Burial Site
Located at the northwest corner of Crocker Cemetery, 605 West Crocker Avenue in Big Pine.
Around the 1900's, Inyo County, California provided a County Hospital and working farm on 80 acres in Big Pine. The purpose of the farm was to help people who had fallen on hard times be self-sufficient and provide medical care. The County Farm was still in use as both a Tuberculosis Sanatorium and Home for the aged in the 1940s. The building was eventually converted into the Big Pine Care Center which was in use until 2000.
The resident's exact burial spots are unknown, however in 2022, the Big Pine Cemetery District placed permanent grave markers (cenotaphs) to acknowledge the residents who died and were buried at the Farm Cemetery. Sources for the names added were obtained from newspaper clippings and county death certificates.