Front Cover of Land of the Dead by Terry Hamburg

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LAND OF THE DEAD

HOW THE WEST CHANGED DEATH IN AMERICA

The fabled nineteenth-century migration to the American West was filled with peril and despair. Death was a constant companion, and the promised land proved as lethal as it was fickle.

This book explores how the demands of survival and adaptation during Westward Expansion changed the way we have buried and grieved for our dead in America. That custom was only one of many transformations an outlier adolescent culture wrought upon the nation that spawned it.

Nowhere did these changes play out more dynamically than gold rush "instant city" San Francisco - the only major metropolis to execute a complete eviction of its dead - an event that led to the formation of nearby Colma, the largest necropolis in America.

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Land Of The Dead: How The West Changed Death In America

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Terry Hamburg

Author & Cultural Historian

Terry Hamburg is Director Emeritus of the Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation, a division of Cypress Lawn Cemetery – the historic California garden necropolis that hosts nearly a half million “residents” including many of the most prominent founders and builders of the American West and the nation. Hamburg has a master’s degree in history from King’s College, Cambridge University in England. He has written numerous articles on California history and the fate of San Francisco’s dead, lectured, and conducts cemetery history and art tours. He is the author of Quotable San Francisco.

"There's a myth about the Gold Rush of 1849 that goes like this: Young men from the east, with a dream and a sifting pan, took a train west in comfort and high style, lowered their pans into the northern California creek beds and became rich as kings. In LAND OF THE DEAD, historian Terry Hamburg dispels that myth, and sets us straight. His telling of the Gold Rush days is authentic and vivid. We learn why San Francisco became known as the place where "no coward ever set out for and no weakling ever reached." Hamburg does what historians must do: he puts us there. It's muck and mire, dysentery and loneliness, gritty stuff. Dreams die, so do many of the dreamers, and their odysseys don't end with their burials. They are forgotten, their caskets moved. But there is hope: In a new century, out of the fog of despair, we see the great city of San Francisco rising."

GARY M. POMERANTZ

Author of Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn,

New York Times' Notable Book of the Year

“Terry Hamburg’s Land of the Dead: How the West Changed Death in America does an excellent job of placing the history of graveyards and cemeteries in context to the larger picture of western history with a particular focus on developments in the City of San Francisco… The book represents a terrific amount of work and should be on the shelf of anyone interested in a well-written piece on western history.”

MITCH P. POSTEL

Director of the San Mateo County Historical Museum, author, San Mateo County: A Sesquicentennial History

"Land of the Dead provides shattering context for San Francisco’s removal of its cemeteries: the “greatest mass removal of the dead in human history." Required reading for anyone curious about California history or the 2000-mile long graveyard that was the overland path to the west."

LOREN RHOADS

Author of 222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die

“In his new book, Land of the Dead: How the West Changed Death in America, Terry Hamburg paints an elaborately detailed and fascinating portrait of just how this huge migration left a lasting impact on how we’ve come to view the burial and mourning process…In this meticulously researched and compellingly narrated history, Hamburg delves into the genesis of an "instant city" and the pivotal decisions it entailed….He further illustrates that our relationship with the "living dead" is just as significant as their initial burial and subsequent relocation, both in San Francisco and beyond….Hamburg has done a remarkable job of beautifully depicting this morbid slice of American history, weaving historical facts, excerpts from actual diaries and stunning drawings that all serve to bring this period and the people to life. What could be a dry and stodgy recitation reads like a popular novel yet with a sound foundation in facts and thoughtful examination.”

SUSAN CUSHING

Momento Mori, magazine of the International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association

“San Francisco history from six feet under! Hamburg brings ‘to life’ the tragic and seldom explored experience of 100,000s of mostly young male adventures from around the globe as they head off to the California Gold Rush. Optimistically departing, they are unaware that 1 in 10 of them will not even survive the trek to California. Of those who make it, another 1 in 5 will perish within 6 months of arriving. And they will die amongst strangers in “the most diverse collection of humanity to ever assemble.” With no mothers or wives to mourn them, nor common religion to bury them, a scandalous new approach to the traditions of death and dying is born. ‘Dig in’ to these stranger-than-fiction stories that make San Francisco history so much fun to read.”

KRISTINE POGGIOLI & CAROLYN EIDSON

authors, Walking San Francisco’s 49 Mile Scenic Drive

“Terry Hamburg is a gifted storyteller. His writing style is excellent, entertaining, and laced with a droll humor. For those who appreciate an in-depth history of the perils of the journey that the Gold Rush 49ers took to reach San Francisco, this is your book. And for those of us who want the full story of San Francisco’s cemeteries and their ultimate removal to their final resting place in the nearby necropolis of Colma, Mr. Hamburg has gathered all the facts. We are left to ponder how we have cared for our dead when extenuating circumstances prevail.”

MAUREEN O’CONNOR

President of the Board, Colma Historical Association

“I have known Terry Hamburg for over 20 years as Director of the Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation… Land of the Dead is brilliantly informative about how events today have been formed from the actions of people in the past. Sincerely hanging on every word!”

STEVEN W. BROWN

Department Chair -- Environmental Horticulture/Floristry,

City College of San Francisco