Monticello Public Cemetery District

The Monticello Public Cemetery has 280 plots open for purchase of the cemetery’s total 1,076 plots.
(See below for more information.)

News/Upcoming Meetings

July 19, 2023

The next scheduled Monticello Public Cemetery Advisory Committee meeting: 9 a.m. Wednesday July 19, 2023, County Administration Building, 1195 Third Street, Suite 101, Napa. (See below for meeting agenda packets.)

About/History

The Monticello Cemetery District 

The Monticello Cemetery dates back to the days of the wagon train pioneers.  In 1936, the town folk of Monticello, located in the Berryessa Valley, formed the Monticello Public Cemetery District (MPCD) to administer and operate the cemetery.

On November 11, 1948, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior authorized the Solano Project intended to provide irrigation to prime agricultural land in Solano and Yolo Counties. Part of the project included the building of the Monticello Dam that would channel water into Berryessa Valley. In 1956, after relocating Monticello’s 250 residents and removing or razing the town’s structures, the federal government created Lake Berryessa, flooding the Valley and submerging the town of Monticello. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation relocated Monticello Cemetery before the inundation to its present site on Spanish Flat Loop Road. The new cemetery site was built in the same configuration as the original cemetery.

In 1988, the Napa County Board of Supervisors, by resolution, took control of the MPCD and now sits as the MPCD Board of Trustees (BOT). The BOT appointed the Director of Public Works as MPCD District Manager and appointed a five-member Advisory Committee to consult with the BOT on maintenance and administrative issues. The Committee members serve four-year staggered terms.

The MPCD is a member of the California Association of Public Cemeteries. State law and BOT ordinances govern the MPCD. The California Department of Consumer Affairs oversees public cemetery districts through the California Health & Safety Code laws.

Purchasing Burial Rights

State law governs eligibility for persons wishing to be interred in Monticello Public Cemetery (see eligibility requirements). Eligibility is generally reserved for those who live or have lived in the Monticello Public Cemetery District (see MPCD District map), paid taxes to the District, or have a specific connection to the District or cemetery.

Plots available for purchase in the Monticello Public Cemetery are shown in white on the cemetery layout map (see map). Prices for burial rights and other items can be found on the current MPCD Fee Schedule (see Fee Schedule).

Please contact Michael Karath at 707-299-1477, [email protected], if you are interested in purchasing burial rights in Monticello Public Cemetery. 

Locating A Grave

Visitors wishing to locate an interred person in Monticello Public Cemetery may visit the private website findagrave.com, which is not maintained by Napa County. Once the numbers for Block, Lot, and Plot are found, visitors may view the cemetery’s numbered layout map (see map) to locate the grave.

Advisory Committee Members

Advisory Committee Meetings

Regular meetings are subject to the Brown Act and must be noticed to the public at least 72 hours before the start of the meeting. They are held at 9 a.m. on the third Wednesday of March, June, September, and December at the Napa County Administration Building, 1195 Third Street, Napa. 

Special meetings may be called in conformance with the Brown Act and must be noticed to the public at least 24 hours before the start of the meeting.