There will be access to the De La Ossa Cemetery in Lochiel when all is said and done. This assurance comes from Santa Cruz County District 3 Supervisor John Fanning as the double border wall in the San Rafael Valley rises and encroaches on the current access road to an ancestral resting place and chapel in the border hamlet of Lochiel.
Whether the existing access will be preserved or new entry created has yet to be determined. Although Fanning is adamant that the cemetery and neighboring chapel will be accessible for annual family gatherings and future interments. The cemetery dates back to 1902 and the chapel to 1958.
“There will be access to the cemetery from some angle,” said Fanning, who met this week with representatives of Fisher Sand & Gravel on this issue. Fisher, headquartered in Dickinson, N.D., is the entity under contract by the federal government for road and border wall construction.
The first recorded burial at the cemetery in 1902 was that of Antonio M.F. De La Ossa. The graveyard and chapel are now maintained by the De La Ossa Family Cemetery Foundation.