Cliff Burton Memorial

The Story

Cliff Burton was born in Castro Valley on February 10, 1962, and grew up in the East Bay, studying at Marshall Elementary School. He was 20 years old when he joined Metallica, on the condition that the band had to move from Los Angeles to the Bay Area. He died on September 27, 1986, at the age of 24, when the tour bus skidded on a highway in Sweden. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Maxwell Ranch, a family rural retreat about an hour from Castro Valley. In the gardens of Marshall Elementary School, his old school, there is this plaque in his honor.

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