Maiden's Grave is a popular roadside stop along Highway 88 near Silver Lake, California.  It commemorates the death of a young woman named Rachel Melton during the overland migration in 1850. Around 1900 an elderly woman looking for the gravesite of her daughter started a series of events that identified the wrong grave as that of her daughter.

At two different times, two headstones were installed at a location along busy Highway 88. This site came to honor the maiden and many others that died on their journey to California. Historical research in 1989 disclosed that a young man was buried here and that the young woman or maiden was buried in a meadow two miles to the east.

On October 4, 1850, William Edmondson wrote in his diary, "After traveling 6 miles we came to Tragedy Springs...After traveling two miles further, we came to a trading post about noon where we camped having come 8 miles today. A young man from Henry County named Allen Melton died at this place during the night."

Allen Melton was buried near here. No one knows the exact location because of highway realignment when rocks marking the original location were moved. This memorial commemorates the life and death of Allen Melton of Henry County, Iowa and all the others who suffered and died during the great western migration.

From another website:

Maiden’s Grave was considered the true burial site of a young girl for more than 100 years until a local landowner made a surprising discovery. Rachel was moving west from Iowa with her family. She took ill and died in 1850 despite efforts to save her. In the early 1900s, her elderly mother returned to the site of her daughter’s death to find her grave. She was unsuccessful until guests at the Kirkwood Inn heard of Rachel’s death and directed her to a grave they saw had been marked 1850.

Guests at the Inn placed a stone marker at the site to remember the hardships of all pioneer families coming west. The site later became a historical landmark.

In 1986, the landowner of the meadow nearby Maiden’s Grave was clearing brush away and found a rock outline of a grave. Historians determined this was the Rachel’s true resting place. The question arose who was buried in Maiden’s Grave? The mystery was solved after determining that a young man had died suddenly the same year as Rachel and buried in Maiden’s Grave. State Highway 88 has moved several times due to highway realignment. No one knows the true burial site of the young man. Rachel’s grave is located two miles east of the historical landmark in a privately owned meadow nearby.

The historical marker for Maiden Grave is placed along Highway 88 at (P.M. 61.3), 10.5 miles west of Kirkwood.

From: https://sierranevadageotourism.org/entries/maidens-grave-california-historical-landmark-no-28/d19e5772-c068-4cc5-bbcf-d10f52c4d13b

https://noehill.com/amador/cal0028.asp