Waldo Cemetery (old Waldo townsite)
Public (BLM) land reached by a gravel road, with no facilities. We found no 2025 or 2026 source on road conditions (checked November 2026).
All that survives of Waldo, the gold camp that was Josephine County's first seat: a pioneer cemetery with burials from 1858 to 1918, and the separate Waldo Chinese Cemetery nearby. Both are on BLM land and in the National Register.
- Address: Off Waldo Road, about half a mile southwest of the old Waldo townsite, near Takilma
- Website: npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/4995338f-c74d-49f7-b13b-4bc4b77ecbfb
- Area: Takilma
From our Illinois Valley history page
In the early 1850s, a party of sailors found rich gold placers in the south end of the valley. Sources disagree on the year: the state's Blue Book says 1852, and the National Register nomination for the town's cemetery says 1851. The camp was called Sailors' Diggings, and it set off a rush that brought settlers into the region.
The camp was renamed Waldo for William Waldo, a Whig candidate for governor of California who campaigned there in 1853, apparently thinking the town was in California. When Josephine County was created in 1856, Waldo became its first county seat, and a post office opened that September. At its peak it had a hotel, a brewery, a bowling alley, a skating rink, and a row of buildings known as Chinatown.
Waldo faded as miners moved on, though hydraulic mining carried on for decades. The Redwood Highway, finished in 1926, bypassed the town, and the post office closed 2 years later.
What's there now: the townsite itself is gone. What survives is the Waldo Cemetery, on Bureau of Land Management land about half a mile southwest of the old town, along with the nearby Waldo Chinese Cemetery, where the area's Chinese residents were buried apart from everyone else. The 2 cemeteries were listed together in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The pioneer cemetery is about an acre, with 31 known graves, 21 of them marked. The recorded burials run from 1858 to 1918, and several are small children.
The cemetery is reached by a gravel road off Waldo Road. There are no facilities. Treat it as the burial ground it is, and leave everything as you found it.
Read the whole Illinois Valley history page.
Nearby
- Out 'n' About Treesort, 1.9 miles away in a straight line
- Rough and Ready Botanical Wayside, 3.2 miles away in a straight line
- O'Brien Country Store, 3.2 miles away in a straight line
- Siskiyou Smokejumper Base Museum, 3.6 miles away in a straight line
- Bridgeview Vineyard and Winery, 5.0 miles away in a straight line
Every place in the valley is on the places page.