San Francisco's cemetery history is rich, to say the least. It goes something like this:

• Mission Dolores cemetery
• Yerba Buena cemetery
• San Francisco National Cemetery (in the Presidio)
• City Cemetery/Golden Gate Cemetery
• The Big 4—Calvary, Odd Fellows (including the Columbarium), Masonic, Laurel Hill

In Part 1 of the four-part series we're doing on San Francisco Cemeteries, we'll meet Courtney Minick of Here Lies a Story. Courtney will serve as our guide through this history. Along the way, we'll meet folks who work with the cemeteries that are left over here in The City—the one at Mission Dolores and San Francisco National Cemetery. We'll take walking tours of the Mission and the pet cemetery in the Presidio. Interestingly, as we were putting these episodes together, the Board of Supervisors' Land Use Committee voted unanimously in favor of granting City Cemetery landmark status. Now the matter goes before the full board sometime this month. The timing! Look for the remaining episodes in this series over the next several weeks.