Where do you take an adorable toddler on Halloween?
To the San Luis Rey Pioneer Cemetery to learn about the history of Oceanside, of course.
We love history. And Oceanside. And cemeteries. And seeing new things.
The Pioneer Cemetery was founded in 1869. Oceanside’s pioneers (including Oceanside’s founder, Andrew Jackson Myers) were laid to rest here, on a plot of land that overlooks the San Luis Rey Mission. Before 1869 the only cemetery was at the San Luis Rey Mission, which was reserved for Catholics. The protestant pioneers of the San Luis Rey Township (future Oceanside) needed a place to exist for all of eternity too, so they set up on a knoll, with a view of their holy neighbors. The cemetery was renovated in 2013 but I don’t think it has received too much attention since then, besides the bums that set up camp around various headstones, pretending like they are paying their respects to the dead.
This was our first time to the cemetery. We stopped by on our way to Temecula to carve pumpkins with my sister et al.
The cemetery is interesting. It is tiny but has a variety of gravestones. Just stopping for this gate alone is worth it.
It has been a few years since Eric or I were elbow deep in pumpkin seeds. 
Happy Halloween 2020!
I love this Halloween post in B & W. It adds a level of spookiness and what better place to celebrate than at a cemetery. We, too, ‘discovered’ this Pioneer resting place recently. It’s only been there over 200 years… Hello!
Sweet images. Neat history. Thanks babe.
I swear I didn’t notice this cemetery until recently. (And you can see the gate from the 76!) Why does this happen!? We are too busy getting from point A to point B, I guess.