With Halloween just around the corner, cemeteries hold a different position of importance than they do normally for their significant creep factors. While many of you may know about the Fort Douglas Cemetery, located near Officer’s Circle, what you may not know is that this cemetery was the final resting place of all sorts of interesting people, including German prisoners of war from both WWI and WWII, totaling around 1,354 interred bodies.
To bring attention to the largely unknown but truly fascinating stories that Fort Douglas houses, the U’s History Student Advisory Committee (H-SAC), with sponsoring from the History Department and contributions from Phi Alpha Theta, held a newly annual event allowing students, student families and the general public to ask questions about the cemetery’s history and receive informed answers from accomplished History professors.
“The Graveyard stroll is a fun activity in an awesome, if lesser-known, graveyard on campus,” said president of H-SAC Noah Rosenberg.
The event includes a scavenger hunt, taking participants on a journey through the graveyard to find the more interesting grave markers and allowing these individuals to potentially learn more about the past lives of the bodies buried below.
“The scavenger hunt is a blast,” said Carrie Felton, a member of H-SAC. “It is fascinating to see the history and variety of the veterans buried in our cemetery.”
Rosenberg agreed, adding, “My favorite part of the graveyard stroll is the opportunity to interact with the history of Utah and Fort Douglas. You can really learn a lot about the history of our state and our university.”
For those who don’t see the value in learning history, Felton explained that the more you know about history, the more you realize that “history always repeats itself, but it is fun to try and stop it this time.”
This year’s Graveyard Stroll will take place on Oct. 30, starting at 7 p.m.
“Families with children are welcome,” Rosenberg said. “There are light refreshments, and flashlights are encouraged.”
The Graveyard Stroll should help you psych yourself up for the rapidly approaching night of purposeful fear and fun that is Halloween while also teaching you more about the history surrounding your school. The fact that it will take place in an old, definitely creepy and dark graveyard should definitely contribute to the overall feeling of scary that Halloween is known for.