Cemeteries Aren’t Just For The Dead Anymore

With Halloween slowly approaching local areas are gearing up for more than just trick or treating. For those who like to reminisce with the dead, Forest Hill Cemetery, Lake View Cemetery and Pine Hill Cemetery, are just where you want to be when fall begins to creep around the corner.

Saints and Sinners Tour/ Twilight Mausoleum Tour

Each year the Fenton Historical Society hosts two separate tours, each giving the public a glimpse of cemetery life they have yet to know.

First, the Saints and Sinners Tour runs October 2 and 9 and tells the stories of some of Chautauqua’s most famous residents, including some average Joe’s with less than average pasts. Every tour has a tour guide that leads a dozen or so people on a walk through the Lake View cemetery grounds, stopping at multiple head stones. “Some (headstones) will have actors at the monuments, representing the person the tour guides have led them to,” said Paula Bechmann, office manager. The tour is an informational tour, not one that is meant to scare people. Tours are from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and depart every 20 minutes. People are strongly urged to buy presale or they may not be able to get a tour. Presale tickets are $8, children and youth are $2. To reserve your ticket and your preferred time slot, please call 716-664-6256. Each year the society does their usual few, but then each year they tell the stories of new people. Sam Genco, on the board of trustee, gets the society access to the cemetery grounds for the tour as gets the obituary and death certificate of each person. Then researches at the Fenton Historical Society dig a little deeper to find out who exactly each person was and compiles the stories for all those who attend to hear.

The Fenton Historical Society also hosts a second tour, the Twilight Mausoleum Tour that takes place October 3 and 10 at 8 p.m. This tour opens people to an experience they can only get once a year – access to Lake View’s mausoleums. Tour guides tell the stories of the mausoleums and about the people inside of them – taking people on a trip as far back as the cemetery’s beginning. The price of this tour is different however, reservations are a must and the cost is $15 per person, $25 per couple or $5 for children and youth. Both of these tours are open to all ages.

Harvest Moon Cemetery Tour

October 15 and 16 the Forest Hill Cemetery comes alive from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Between 15 and 25 people from Fredonia’s past will once again walk amongst the living. “The residents of the cemetery will rise again as ghosts,” said Mary Jane Starks, chairman of the tours. The tours last one hour, but run every half an hour.

“The tour is not scary, but historic with a bit more fun,” Starks said. “We talk about the heroes and villains from our local history.” The tour is for anyone between the ages of 8 and 80 – and even beyond that! Following the tour, Intermezzo will be offering refreshments as well as hosting guest readings after the tour.

Through the two nights, between 275 and 300 people take the trolley through the cemetery for “a good, informative and fun time,” Starks said. The ghosts (actors) will come aboard the trolley and share their tale of their life, their death and everything in between.

A unique part of this tour is that it is taken in a horse drawn trolley that seats up to 20 passengers. Since seats fill up quickly for this “haunted” excursion, reservations are a must! Tickets are $12.50 per person. People can call 716-672-4818 or 1-888-414-4818 for tickets and more information. Starks also reminds people to dress for the weather as the trolley is not completely enclosed.

Pine Hill Cemetery

This tour comes with an extra bonus because it occurs the same weekend as the Gowanda Harvest Festival. This tour tells the tales of past Gowanda residents with a focus on the past of the cemetery itself. A bus takes 25 people at a time from the village of Gowanda to the cemetery and then drops them off. Each year, the Gowanda Chamber of Commerce highlights five different people, who each have a local actor play them. Throughout the past four years that this event has been occurring, the chamber has discovered some “pretty famous people buried out there,” said Lynn Boats, chamber secretary.

Along with the actors, there is also a quartet that plays in the cemetery as the stories of the dead are told. “The stories take you back as if it’s happening right now,” Boats said. Each trip out to the cemetery is about 90 minutes including the drive and stories. After all the tales are told, there are displays of the cemetery history, as well as what all the different types of headstones mean. Each one, whether it is flat, thin and pointed or round, they each have a certain meaning behind them that the average person dose not even know about. There are three trips to the cemetery on Saturday September 18, 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., as well as two trips on Sunday the 19 at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tickets are $8 a person and are bought at the festival.