{"nrhp_refnum":"95000999","name":"Chung Wah Cemetery","other_names":["Sze Yup--Sam Yup Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Mormon St. vicinity, near Lake Natoma","address_restricted":false,"city":"Folsom","county":"Sacramento County","state":"CA","lat":38.67030784900004,"lon":-121.19640813999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-08-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Asian","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2.616-acre Chinese cemetery on a bluff near Lake Natoma in Folsom, Sacramento County, California, used by Sze Yup and Sam Yup association members. The Chung Wah Company acquired the land in 1906, though burials there began earlier.","why_significant":"It is the last visible reminder of Folsom's once-large Chinese community and reflects the district association ties kept up into the twentieth century. It keeps burial mounds, exhumation pits, a burning pit, a vault and a shrine foundation that show Chinese spiritual practices. Its high physical integrity and its ethnic and historical associations support its significance under Criterion A.","narrative":"On a bluff near Lake Natoma in Folsom, California, a 2.616-acre burial ground holds the traces of the town's Chinese community. Used by members of the Sze Yup and Sam Yup associations, the cemetery was deeded to the Chung Wah Company in 1906, although burials there date back at least to 1871 and probably earlier. It has no formal layout. Between 75 and 100 earthen mounds lie at irregular angles among exhumation pits, with a burning pit inside the gate, a brick-lined vault, and the foundation and partial walls of a shrine used for Ch'ing Ming ceremonies. Vandals desecrated the site in 1967 and destroyed the shrine. Dredge tailings and native oaks still surround it, and it remains secluded. It was listed for its ethnic heritage and religious associations, as the last visible reminder of a community that once numbered in the hundreds. The last burial took place in 1946, ending roughly forty years of use under association ownership.","period_of_significance":"1906 - 1946","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"OTHER/shrine; OTHER/vault","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still a cemetery. The site is overgrown and untended, and a shrine vandalized in 1967 survives only as a foundation and partial walls.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:26.938589-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/95000999.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000999/57bfb36c5c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95000999/57bfb36c5c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Oscarmostofi","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chung_Wah_Cemetery_1226_Forrest_Street,_Folsom,_CA._95630_By_Oscar_Mostofi.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Oscarmostofi</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chung_Wah_Cemetery_1226_Forrest_Street,_Folsom,_CA._95630_By_Oscar_Mostofi.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123860563","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Wah_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5116341"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/sacramento-county/chung-wah-cemetery-95000999/"}