Governance

In 1891, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors officially recognized the cemetery to serve the community of Happy Valley and the village of Olinda,î designated the Happy Valley Cemetery Association as the governing board, and appointed the first three official trustees.

Over the years it has sometimes been referred to as the Oak Cemetery and the Cloverdale Cemetery, but it is officially designated the Happy Valley Cemetery. The Happy Valley Cemetery is not a tax-supported district. It is a true community cemetery, governed by the private, non-profit Happy Valley Cemetery Association, consisting of a Board of Trustees of six members. To be eligible to serve on the Board, persons must be residents of the Happy Valley area. The Board members are all volunteers. The Board holds its annual meeting on the second Friday of January each year and meets periodically on the second Friday of a month when the need arises.

Officially-adopted policy of the Board of Trustees states that the Association, strives to maintain a neat rural atmosphere of indigenous trees and shrubs, operate within the public laws governing the operation of cemeteries, and yet sustain a nominal cost of gravesites for users.î

When a person purchases a gravesite in the cemetery, a deed is issued by the Board Secretary. The following rules apply to the cemetery:

1. Only residents or property owners or family members within the Happy Valley area are eligible to purchase gravesites;

2. Upon burial or inurnment, a burial permit must be presented to a representative of the Happy Valley Cemetery Association;

3. Within 90 days of burial a permanent marker must be placed on the grave;

4. Multiple burials within one gravesite are not allowed.

No other rules apply. Family and friends of the deceased are free to embellish graves in any manner which they deem fitting as long as they confine themselves to the deeded area. Periodically, volunteer organizations, such as the Happy Valley 4-H Club, perform clean up activities; however, this is not an endowment care cemetery.

Physical Organization and Lay-out

The cemetery is divided into large blocks in alphabetical sequence, Block A through Block N. Each block contains 42 lots. Numbering for these lots starts in the northeast corner of each block and continues sequentially to the west for six blocks, then drops down so that the seventh block is directly underneath block six, and continues sequentially eastward until block 12, then drops down so that the 13th is directly underneath block 12, and continues sequentially westward to block 18 and so on until each block ends at Block 42. Each lot is further divided into eight gravesites, which are numbered in a similar manner. Accordingly, each gravesite is assigned a three-part alphabetical-numerical description. For example, gravesite D-1-1 would be gravesite #1, in Lot #1, in Block D.

Gravesites are five feet wide by eight feet long. Each gravesite will accommodate one burial or four inurnments. In the case of inurnments, a letter is added to the suffix of the grave number, and are designated from west to east. For example, gravesite D-1-1-a is an inurnment on the western edge of gravesite #1, in Lot #1, in Block D.