Graveyard Shift

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO —  Up a short, winding road, tucked behind a refuge of trees, the Old Mission Cemetery suffered from lack of upkeep--wildflowers and grasses had grown unchecked because of recent rains.

But this week the cemetery got a spring cleaning when a group of seven boys took time from their school break to fix up the historical grounds, established around the 1850s.

Unknown to many outside the close-knit San Juan Capistrano community, the 2-acre site is a virtual who’s who of South County history, with many of the area’s founders buried there.

The more than 400 crosses, crypts and headstones, which date from a century ago to present day, bear the names of some of the people who helped create San Juan Capistrano, including members of the Rios, Yorba, Forster, Lobo and Belardes families.

Because the cemetery is so old, many grave markers are bare, but Mission San Juan Capistrano officials believe that some Juaneno Mission Indians as well as early Spanish and French settlers are also buried there.

“There’s a lot of tradition and heritage here,” said San Juan Capistrano resident David Belardes, who has great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and other relatives at the cemetery.

Even though the mission owns and maintains the land, it relies on volunteers and family members of those buried at the cemetery to help with the upkeep, mission administrator Jerry Miller said.

The volunteers this week took shovels, picks and garbage bags in hand to clean up the cemetery. Seven boys from the city’s gang prevention program, Community Service Programs Inc., and several community members cleared the overgrown vegetation.

The work was meant to prevent vandalism, which has plagued the cemetery in the past couple of years, and to reduce the danger of fire, they said.

For the youths, the project was a lesson in history, hard work and helping others.

“The best thing about it is working and doing things for the community,” Jesus Garcia, 12, said while hacking wild grass with a hoe. “I like to work. This is not hard for me.”

Adult volunteer Ilse Byrnes said the cleanup effort was a good experience for the boys and a benefit to the community.

“It teaches them history and respect,” said Byrnes, who is also a commissioner on the city’s Parks, Recreation and Equestrian Commission. “It’s a good community project. They get something out of it, and the community gets a lot back.”

Located east of the mission and across Interstate 5, the burial site is an extension of the cemetery--the oldest one in Orange County--found on the mission grounds off Camino Capistrano.

After the earthquake of 1812, which killed 40 people at the mission, the cemetery filled quickly, which led to the need for greater grave-site space.

Officials chose the second site because it was close to the church and mourners could walk to the burial site during funerals, said Miller.

Today, only relatives of the city’s founders are allowed to be buried at the cemetery because space is at a premium.

Mission archivist Charles Bodnar said that many tales have been told about the historical cemetery and its inhabitants, including those that take on a mystical quality. Years ago, he said, children playing in the cemetery came to mission officials with stories of seeing mysterious figures floating above grave sites.

“There have been ghosts seen up there,” Bodnar said.