The Glenwood Cemetery will be alive with the past on Halloween day when those who are supposed to be lying under the ground will be above it, telling true stories of their lives and deaths to the curious.
The annual event, known as “Halloween at the Glenwood,” co-produced by the Glenwood Cemetery Association and the Park City Historical Society and Museum, has thrilled locals and out-of-towners for more than 12 years.
“Cemeteries contain a lot of information,” said Sarah Klingenstein, board member of the Glenwood Cemetery Association. “When you see a large number of people who died within a certain amount of time, you realize there must have been an epidemic, or a disaster.
“There is a lot of history in Summit County, and this event is an opportunity to share a good bit of it with people,” she said.
Meticulous research by the Park City Historical Society and Museum unearths interesting anecdotes of the area’s former residents, who suffered through mining disasters, disease and bar fights, Klingenstein said.
“Some of the tales told are also about individuals such as a woman named Harriet Prescott, who died from injuries suffered when her apron caught fire while she was cooking,” Klingenstein said. “The cemetery becomes a record of how precarious the times were in the past.”
The story-telling is done by local actors who stand by the graves and, from noon to 2 p.m., take listeners on an oral tour of the past.
“The actors gather their own costumes and are given a script,” Klingenstein said. “They usually bring their own props and are allowed to personalize the stories, without taking away any of the historical facts.”
Throughout the years, Klingenstein and other board members have been approached by descendants of certain characters.
“They tell us how grateful they are to see their great, great uncle portrayed,” Klingenstein said.
“They say how much it means to learn about their families’ past.”
Speaking of the past, the Glenwood Cemetery has one all its own.
“The first cemetery in Park City was the Park City Cemetery,” she said. “People had to pay to be buried there. the turn of the century, there were a lot of people such as miners and people who were wiped out by disease whose families couldn’t afford to pay to be buried in the Park City Cemetery.”
So the different fraternal orders such as the Elks, the Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Masons and Woodmen of the World gathered their resources and set up the Glenwood Cemetery, Klingenstein said.
“They would take care of the burials,” she said. “And that’s the reason the cemetery is divided into sections named for these orders.”
Presently, no one is buried in the Glenwood unless they are a member or a direct descendant of a member of one of the orders, Klingenstein said. “Today, the only active order is the Elks.”
Klingenstein likes the Glenwood Cemetery because of its “spooky, romantic feeling.”
“It’s a very gothic and picturesque cemetery,” she said. “It is old and romantic and the perfect place to hear stories of the past.”
“Halloween at the Glenwood” will run from noon to 2 p.m., at the Glenwood Cemetery, Park City, Oct. 31. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted.