John Rollin Ridge Family Plot Annual Cleanup 2026
On Saturday May 23, 2026, the CNCV Cemetery cleaning crew volunteers performed our annual John Rollin Ridge Family cemetery plot cleaning and maintenance in Grass Valley, Ca. We worked under the shade of the Cedar trees on a pleasant sunny but breezy day. When we arrived, we found the plot in fair condition. This is due to our regular annual maintenance. We completed the job in under two hours, consisting of light weeding, raking, headstone cleaning, and a special headstone preservation application. At the end of the maintenance, we applied pre-emergent again.
After the cleanup, we went to Maria's Mexican restaurant in Grass Valley for a fun lunch. Of course, all of this is done in the Cherokee Spirit of Gadugi. We thank our 10 volunteers. WADO to Mike and Liz Webb, Elena Hansen, husband Jeremy, son William; Mary and Natalie Crenshaw; Jackie Robbins; Sabrina McKinney and Robert Grossklaus. We look forward to next spring when the weather is not too hot. We'll invite CNCV members and their families to come and learn more about the iconic Cherokee John Rollin Ridge (the founding editor of the Sacramento Bee and much more).
See more here about our organization’s history with this special plot.
RIDGE IN CALIFORNIA 1850
John Rollin Ridge (1827-1867), whose Cherokee name ᏥᏍᏆ ᏓᎶᏂᎨ tsi-s-qua da-lo-ni-ge (“Cheesquat-a-law-ny” as cited in many places) or “Yellow Bird”, was usually called Rollin. John was a Cherokee novelist, poet, magazine and newspaper writer, politician, gold miner, diplomat, contributor and editor to many newspapers, including the California American of Marysville, The Marysville Express, The Marysville National Democrat, The Marysville Appeal, and The San Francisco Herald as well as the first editor Feb 3, 1857 for the “Daily Bee”. In 1856, Ridge and his cousin, Charles Watie, the brother of Stand Watie, were hired as editors of The California American Newspaper. After a year, Ridge organized a group of Sacramento business leaders to start a newspaper called The Daily Bee, later to become The Sacramento Bee, which first published on Feb. 3, 1857. He stepped down after one week, James McClatchy then took it over.
He is considered to be the first Native American Novelist and the first Californian Novelist. In 1854 he wrote and published his first novel, The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta: the Celebrated California Bandit. It’s a fictionalized composite of various local true crime tales from the earliest years of California’s statehood. The novel eventually became the inspiration for Johnston McCulley’s Zorro stories. “Poems” by John Rollin Ridge was published 1868 and includes the famous and beloved poem “Mount Shasta”. A biography John Rollin Ridge: His Life & Works by James W. Parins was published in 1991. All three books are available on Amazon. John was a contemporary of Mark Twain and Bret Harte. John’s poem “The Harp of Broken Strings” was Mark Twain’s favorite of John’s poems.
