>I've read conflicting reports about the "Lone Woman of San
>Nicholas Island's" grave. All accounts say she is buried at
>Santa Barbara Mission, but some say the grave is unmarked.
>Have you ever heard anything about that?Now that you mention it, I seem to remember reading a book two or three years ago that said she is buried in an unmarked grave in Santa Barbara, but I don't remember it specifically saying she was in the mission cemetery.
I photographed all of the graves in the Santa Barbara Mission Cemetery and chapel in 2003. I don't have them online yet, but I just did a quick search through what I have, then another search on the web for a refresher on the story. Using the info from this page (which does say she's in the mission cemetery), http://tinyurl.com/gfmjd -- and what I found in my own archives, I think it's just a misunderstanding.
According to that web page, Juana Maria (the name given to her by the mission padres) died in 1853, seven weeks after she was found. In my archives, I have a picture of a marker from the cemetery for a Juana Maria Arrellanes, wife of Francisco Arrellanes. She died in 1858. Maybe someone saw the similar names, mistook that 8 for a 3 and the rumor mill went with it...
Makes sense to me. I've seen more than enough things like that happen to make it very plausible. With all the misinformation on the Internet it's hard to do any reliable research, and many people don't even bother to try. That's why I let Diana do all that kind of work on the people in the Pioneer Graves section of my website. She's damn good at it, and I'm just too lazy... LOL
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