San Francisco Cemeteries, Part 4

In Part 4, we meet Rob Thompson, federal preservation officer at the Presidio Trust. Rob shares the history of San Francisco's pet cemetery, which dates back to 1952.

The pet cemetery sits in a part of the Presidio known as Cavalry Bowl, which for a century was dedicated to animal management when the Presidio was home to the U.S. Army. The cemetery was established by Army families during that time, until they left in the 1990s. Since then, the only burials there are what we decided to call "illicit" burials.

We end the episode with a walk-through, where we encounter the colorful names and epitaphs of a wide variety of around 420 animals.

This episode concludes our series on San Francisco cemeteries. Thank you for listening.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather