Early California rancheros maintained their own family cemeteries on their lands. The Ruiz
family, who farmed in San Francisquito Canyon as early as the mid-1800s, was no exception. The Ruiz
family cemetery may have been the Santa Clarita Valley's largest private burial ground.
One grave marker dates back to 1888, and some may be older. Long gone are the wooden crosses seen in this
photograph.
Of note is a gravestone inscribed "Niebes Ruiz, Born 1794, Died 1904."
(According to great-granddaughter Michelle Nuñez, birth records indicate that Niebes Ruiz
was actually born about 1812.)
Prominent is a series of six grave markers and a larger monument with the family name engraved, memorializing the deaths
of Rosaria and Enrique Ruiz and four of their children, ages eight to thirty, killed in the St.
Francis Dam disaster of March 12-13, 1928.
The cemetery lies on a tranquil hilltop approximately one-quarter mile south of the dam site. Featured in this
photo is a Ruiz family descendant, Mabel Packard Wagner, daughter of "Lady Linda" Ruiz and Tony Packard. Photograph taken
in 1963 by R.W. Trueblood. Identification by A.B. Perkins, Tom Frew IV and Leon Worden.
