The Park City Museum will verbally unearth the town’s mining history when it starts this season’s Historic Glenwood Cemetery tours.

These guided hour-and-a-half excursions will begin at 10:30 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, from June 27 to Aug. 31, said Diane Knispel, Park City Museum education director.

Registration is now open by visiting parkcityhistory.org/events. The cost is $15 per person.

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“The only day we’re not doing a tour will be July 4,” she said. “There are too many things happening on the Fourth of July, so we don’t want to interfere with everybody else’s activities.”

Unfortunately there are a lot of children buried in the cemetery, because medical technology wasn’t great back then.” Diane Knispel, Park City Museum education director

The goal of the tours is to introduce the public to the cemetery and those who are buried there, according to Knispel.

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“We wanted to set up a tour that would give people an idea of the things these people went through,” she said. “We wanted people to learn these stories, and we also wanted people to know about the historic significance of the cemetery.”

Tour groups cap off at 15 people, Knispel said.

“We do that so people can see and hear the guides,” she said. “We’re outside so there is a lot of noise with wind and things like that.”

Participants are encouraged to bring a water bottle, wear sunscreen and wear comfortable walking shoes.

Groups meet at the cemetery gate, at 401 Silver King Drive, so people are instructed to park on the road near the cemetery.

Approximately 900 people are buried in the Glenwood Cemetery, and their descendants still visit, Knispel said. 

“The cemetery was originally created by (fraternal) organizations for those who worked in the mines in Park City,” she said. “These … organizations also provided miners with health insurance, because the mining companies they worked for didn’t offer it.”

Sometimes the miners didn’t survive the various health problems that came with working in the mines, Knispel said.

“A lot of them got sick from miner’s consumption brought on from inhaling the dust and debris in the mines, and some miners got hurt and (in) accidents,” she said. “So these … organizations set up the cemetery where they could bury the dead.”

Miners aren’t the only people interred at the Glenwood, according to Knispel.

“There are spouses and kids,” she said. “Unfortunately there are a lot of children buried in the cemetery, because medical technology wasn’t great back then. So if a kid got sick with a childhood disease, all the doctors could do was help them get as comfortable as they could before they died.”

Some of the buried were once miners who went on to other professions, Knipsel said.

“And there are also people there who were never miners, but who were part of the fraternal organizations such as the Elks and Masons,” she said. 

Another unique characteristic of the Glenwood Cemetery is the abundance of long grasses and wildflowers. 

“We let the lawn and flowers grow throughout the season, and don’t mow them down like what happens in most cemeteries,” Knispel said. “We mow only once a year at the end of the season because this is a historic cemetery and a natural environment.”

Mowing once a year also helps preserve the cemetery, she said.

“This way the wildflowers can grow, and it cuts down the chances of headstones getting damaged,” she said. “The Park City Museum acquired the cemetery in the mid 2010s. It’s a beautiful place. And preserving it is our job.”

Knispel, who has been with the Park City Museum since 2015, loves the Glenwood Cemetery’s environment.

“Telling these stories brings the cemetery to life,” she said.