Costumed volunteers for Park City Museum will lead participants in approximately 75-minute tours through the cemetery at 10:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. on Saturday. Credit: Photo courtesy of Park City Museum On Saturday, the Glenwood Cemetery Tribute will highlight stories of life and death during P ark City’s historical mining days. Costumed volunteers lead participants in approximately 75-minute tours through the cemetery at 10:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. Local legends like Blanche Fletcher, who was born, raised and died in Park City from 1888 to 1982, come to life through well-researched stories, which fit this year’s theme: We Have Seen It All! Indeed, Fletcher watched the town transform from a mining town to a world-renowned ski resort. She’ll be portrayed for the first time at the cemetery tribute. A popular pianist at Park City events, she played at silent films. She was even performing the night the Dewey Theater collapsed under record snowfall in 1916. She and about 300 others left the venue just hours prior.  She also survived the Great Fire of 1898, one of the most catastrophic town fires in the state’s history, leaving more than 500 residents homeless — few of whom carried property insurance. In the late 1970s, she appeared in a movie riding a float through town dressed as the snow queen. Additionally, she appeared in a commercial for the ski resort and on the “Donny Marie” Osmond show; Dawn Bickford posted on Facebook that a YouTube video proves she called Donny a turkey. Findagrave.com called Fletcher a “feisty woman” who “retained her sharp wit until the time of her death.” “Mrs. Fletcher was an icon in Park City. She influenced the lives of many with her ability to teach music, as well as entertain,” a post on Facebook by BobandPat Welch said. “She literally saw it all,” said Diane Knispel, director of education at Park City Museum. “She was a kid for some of it, but she experienced it all.” Another notable figure of this year’s Glenwood Cemetery Tribute, Nels Blomgren, was in the process of becoming a United States citizen after moving from Sweden when he died. While all of the stories within the tribute are based on facts from archives, it’s uncertain whether he was robbed before being killed. Other deceased residents’ stories are showcased, including Annie Cunnington, the Corrigan family, William Warren, Ella Sorenson and Francis Trythall. The Glenwood Cemetery Tribute, which costs $25, acts as a fundraiser to preserve the historic cemetery. Credit: Photo courtesy of Park City Museum “The goal is to introduce people to the Glenwood cemetery and let them know about the people who are buried there,” Knispel said. “A lot of them were miners, since this was a mining town. We learn a lot about how they mined or where they mined and the accidents that happened and the conditions that they had to work under. We’ve learned that some of the miners, for example, started out in mining and then decided that mining was just not for them, so they would set up a shop on Main Street or they would buy a farm instead. And then some of the miners mined their entire careers.”  Every year, the theme, and people portrayed, change.  “The (Park City) Museum holds what we affectionately call the Book of the Dead, which is all the records of the people who are in the cemetery. I, along with board members, are actually going through the records, checking to see if the records are correct,” Knispel said. When they find inaccuracies, they adjust accordingly.  “Through that, we’re learning how people died, and then we do some research, and the research led us to write some of these scripts that the volunteers memorize and then act out,” Knispel said. Each story contains details of the person’s life, sourced from obituaries and other records. “We want this to be factual because we know a lot of the families are still in the area or come to visit, and we want to make sure that we’re getting our information correct so that we’re not upsetting any of the families,” she said. The event, which costs $25, acts as a fundraiser to preserve the historic cemetery. Currently, there’s a strategic plan in place: In the past year, the burial site has benefitted from new gravel on the roads, trail maintenance, pond repair and gravestone upkeep, including those that had partially sunken into the ground. “There’s a lot of work to be done over there still, so we do this to try to not only get people’s attention, but also to bring in some money for the cemetery,” she said. Tickets are available at parkcityhistory.org/event/glenwood-cemetery-tribute-event-2. A rain date is scheduled for Oct. 4 in case of inclement weather. The post Glenwood Cemetery Tribute brings stories of former Park City pioneers to life appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less