Grave of Robert Ripley

The final resting place of the creator of Believe It or Not, in his hometown

Address Oddfellows Cemetery, 600 College Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95401

Robert Ripley, creator of the Believe It or Not syndicated cartoon and museum empire, was born in Santa Rosa in 1890 and is buried in the Oddfellows Cemetery on College Avenue. The grave is straightforward — a flat stone in a quiet Victorian-era cemetery — but the connection between the man and the city is worth knowing. A few blocks away, the Church of One Tree (the chapel built from a single redwood) now houses the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, a full-circle story that Ripley himself would have appreciated.

The cemetery is well-maintained and easy to visit. Finding Ripley's grave requires a quick enquiry at the entrance or a look at the cemetery map. Allow 20 minutes; the Victorian gravestones in this part of the cemetery are interesting in their own right.

things to do sight
A story
Robert Ripley was born in Santa Rosa in 1890 and died in 1949 having become one of the most widely syndicated cartoonists and broadcasters in American history. He claimed the Church of One Tree (now the Ripley Museum, a few blocks away) as the single strangest fact he had ever encountered — a church built from the timber of one redwood tree. He was buried back in his hometown, where the strangest building in town was the result of his own collecting instinct turned outward.