Welcome to my Pioneer Graves Project site. This is a collection of photos I've taken over the years in the old, sometimes neglected cemeteries of the Western U.S. mining towns. Most are from the gold towns in California along Highway 49, but there are also many from the deserts, Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, and a few other states. As always, please let me know of any errors you find here. You can do so via email or in the forum on my site. (Hint: If the additional info for the picture/person is not visible below an image, click on the icon.)

Frequently Asked Questions

General FAQ

Question: What types of accounts are there?

Answer: Other than inactive and banned users, the active account types are: Guest: Allows users to rate and leave comments on images. Registered: Same as Guest, plus can upload up to 5Mb to own personal user gallery. Power Users: Same as Guest, plus can upload up to 25Mb to own personal user gallery. Administrators: Site administrator.

Question: How do I login?

Answer: Hover your mouse cursor over the "@" symbol and click the "Login" link, then enter your username and password. Optionally you can check "Remember Me" so you will not have to log in every time you return to the site. Do not use the "Remember Me" otpion if you are using a shared computer, though! IMPORTANT:Cookies must be enabled and the cookie from this site must not be deleted in order to use "Remember Me".

Question: Why can I not login?

Answer: Your account may have not been activated yet. I usually activate accounts within a matter of hours, but sometimes it may take longer. If it has been more than 24 hours, feel free to send an email reminder to me at lonnie@pioneergraves.info.

Question: What if I forgot my password?

Answer: Use the "Forgot password" link to have the system send you email with a reminder.

Question: What if I changed my email address?

Answer: Simply login and change your email address in your "Profile"

Question: How do I save a picture to "My Favorites"?

Answer: Click on a thumbnail to view the picture, then scroll down to the picture information and click "Add to fav". IMPORTANT:Cookies must be enabled and the cookie from this site must not be deleted.

Question: How do I rate a file?

Answer: Click on a thumbnail to view the picture, then scroll to the bottom of the page and choose a rating.

Question: How do I post a comment for a picture?

Answer: Click on a thumbnail to view the picture, then scroll to the bottom of the page and post a comment. You must be logged in to post a comment.

Question: Where do I upload a picture to?

Answer: You will only be able to upload a file to one of your albums in "My Gallery".

Question: What type and size of a file can I upload?

Answer: Allowed image types are jpg, gif and png. They are not to exceed 256K in size and must be no longer than 1024 pixels on the longest side.

Question: How do I create, rename or delete an album in "My Gallery"?

Answer: You should already be in "Admin-Mode" Go to "Create/Order My Albums"and click "New". Change "New Album" to your desired name. You can also rename any of the albums in your gallery. Click "Apply Modifications".

Question: How can I modify and restrict users from viewing my albums?

Answer: You should already be in "Admin Mode" Go to "Modify My Albums. On the "Update Album" bar, select the album that you want to modify. Here, you can change the name, description, thumbnail picture, restrict viewing and comment/rating permissions. Click "Update Album".

Question: How can I view other users' galleries?

Answer: Go to "Album List" and select "User Galleries".

Question: What are cookies?

Answer: Cookies are a plain text piece of data that is sent from a website and is put on to your computer. Cookies usually allow a user to leave and return to the site without having to login again and other various chores.

Question: Where can I get this program for my site?

Answer: Coppermine is a free Multimedia Gallery, released under GNU GPL. It is full of features and has been ported to various platforms. Visit the Coppermine Home Page to find out more or download it.

Navigating the Site

Question: What's "Album List"?

Answer: This will show you the entire category you are currently in, with a link to each album. If you are not in a category, it will show you the entire gallery with a link to each category. Thumbnails may be a link to the category.

Question: What's the difference between "Admin Mode" and "User Mode"?

Answer: This feature, when in admin-mode, allows a user to modify their gallery (as well as others if allowed by the administrator).

Question: What's "Upload Picture"?

Answer: This feature allows a user to upload a file (size and type is set by the site administrator) to a gallery selected by either you or the administrator.

Question: What's "Last Uploads"?

Answer: This feature shows the last uploads to the site.

Question: What's "Last Comments"?

Answer: This feature shows the last comments along with the files posted by users.

Question: What's "Most Viewed"?

Answer: This feature shows the most viewed files by all users (whether logged in or not).

Question: What's "Top Rated"?

Answer: This feature shows the top rated files rated by the users, showing the average rating (e.g: five users each gave a : the file would have an average rating of ;Five users rated the file from 1 to 5 (1,2,3,4,5) would result in an average .) The ratings range from (best) to (worst).

Question: What's "My Favorites"?

Answer: This feature will let a user store a favorite file in the cookie that was sent to your computer.

Pioneer Graves Project

Question: What is the Pioneer Graves project?

Answer: It is a collection of my photos from pioneer cemeteries in the Southwestern United States, mostly in California's "Gold Country" along Highway 49, but also including towns in other areas and states.

Question: Why do you do it?

Answer: It started innocently enough nearly ten years ago during a trip to Bodie in the Western Sierra Nevada Mountains when I found a booklet in the gift shop that included bios of the people buried in the town's cemeteries. I followed along in the booklet, photographing the headstones as I went. Months later I found a similar book in the gift shop while in Coloma and again photographed all of the graves in those cemeteries. I put these pictures online and was mildly surprised at the interest they generated from visitors to my site. Since then I have continued to look for and photograph the pioneer cemeteries in California's mountain and desert mining communities, and occasionally venture into other states as well.

Question: Can I contribute to the database?

Answer: This is, and always will be, primarily a collection of my own photographs. As a logged in guest you will be allowed to comment and rate the photos. If you have pictures you would like to add to your own personal gallery here, send me an email. If I feel your photos would contribute to the project, I will change your access level to "Registered" or "Power Users" status, giving you some space to store your photos on this site.

Question: Why isn't my favorite grave or cemetery listed?

Answer: There are a lot of graves in the Southwestern pioneer cemeteries. It's going to take me a long time to get to them all. Even on many of the cemeteries I do have listed I still have work yet to do. Feel free to send me suggestions if you find a cemetery or grave I do not yet have listed and if I can, I will try to get to it and add it to the database.