Hundreds of poor San Quentin convicts have for decades been lying in unmarked graves in a ridge overlooking the prison, but that situation might change.
Redwood crosses used to mark the convicts’ graves, located on the potter’s field, called Boot Hill, but over the years the markers fell prey to vandals, or were consumed in numerous brush fires, according to a 1988 Marin Independent Journal newspaper story.
Executed prisoners or those who died at San Quentin without family to claim their bodies were buried on Boot Hill until 1952.
Situated atop a ridge next to the firing range, Boot Hill is the final resting place of almost 700 prisoners.
In 1987, the Vocational Machine Shop decided to do something about the years of neglect and poor state of affairs of the graveyard.
Machine shop workers began recycling used brass from pipes and other sources in the prison, and melting them down in its foundry to create brass plates that would mark the graves. The plates bear a number, not the prisoner’s name.
The project gained the attention of then-state Sen. Milton Marks, and was reported in the Marin Independent Journal.
Marks wrote a letter of congratulations to the prison and the inmates for all of their hard work on the project.
Somehow, the brass markers never made it to the grave sites, becoming another mystery hidden in the mist of San Quentin history, until Machine Shop Instructor Richard Saenz became involved.
About five years ago, Saenz found five of the brass markers.
Saenz discovered what the markers were intended for, and that they were made in his shop.
He immediately started looking for the other 691 markers that had been made for the graves.
Saenz searched the prison for the rest and inquired about them from many people he thought might know their whereabouts within the prison, with no luck for years.
Then, one day about two years ago, he got a phone call telling him the plates had been located in the back of a warehouse on a top shelf.
Now the markers sit in bins in a shed holding used parts for machines and pieces of metal, but they are under the watchful eyes of Saenz.
The foundry where the plates were cast has temporarily shut down, and its fate is uncertain at this point.
It has been more than 25 years since the brass markers have been cast and they still haven’t made it to the grave sites on Boot Hill, and whether they ever will is uncertain.
Saenz says, “I want to see the project come to completion.”
He adds, “The foundry has been a historical part of San Quentin, and I don’t want to see these markers just go to waste.”
Lt. Samuel Robinson, the San Quentin public information officer, said the administration wants to do the right thing by the grave sites, but is concerned that the markers might fall victim to vandalism.
