Memorial Day Decorations at the Life Saving Service Cemetery at G Ranch

As part of the National Moment of Remembrance on Memorial Day, Point Reyes National Seashore honors America’s fallen at 2 p.m. every Memorial Day at the historic graveyard located at G Ranch. Join the National Park Service and the United States Coast Guard for services at the Historic Life-Saving Cemetery. As part of Memorial Day events across the country, participants are asked at 3:00 p.m. to pause and remember America’s fallen wherever you are.

The cemetery is located on a beautiful knoll overlooking Drakes Estero just off Sir Francis Drake near the Coast Guard facility in the northern district of Point Reyes. The cemetery is a short walk from the parking lot off of the access road.

A picket fence enclosure under Coast Guard ownership contains the marked graves of four surfmen who died while on duty at the United States Life-Saving Station at Point Reyes Beach in the early 1890s. The Life-Saving Station crews launched lifeboats into the heavy surf at the Point Reyes beach and conducted numerous rescues of stranded vessels on the treacherous Point Reyes Headlands. Over the course of 78 years, crews participated in an estimated 100 rescues in cold Pacific Ocean waters.

A new Lifeboat Station was constructed in 1927 at a more protected location near Chimney Rock. The Station was rehabilitated by the National Park Service and now serves as an educational facility. The Lifeboat Station has received National Historic Landmark status because it is the last remaining station with an operating railway system for launching vessels on the Pacific Ocean.

The cemetery also contains the headstones and remains of Hinrik Claussen, his wife, and son and daughter-in-law in one fenced area. Hinrik Claussen, a Scandinavian immigrant dairyman, provided oversight for the historic Alphabet Ranches established in the late 1800s on the Point Reyes Peninsula. Mr. Claussen lived at the G Ranch, one of the first ranches to be completed in 1872.

Directions to the cemetery

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