Dear Laura,
We have done cemetery tours every year for about 15 years.  The idea 
sprang from a museum colleague in Ft. Collins, CO who did a tour of all the 
dead museum employees buried in the local cemetery.  We thought that this 
sounded interesting and decided that we should do the same.  Our problem 
was that only the Museum's first curator was in our cemetery.  So- that first 
year we did important donors to the collection.  We would stop at each grave-
 give a brief history of their lives and then talk about the artifacts in the 
collection that they had given.
In subsequent years we chose a different theme for each year's tour.  We 
have done artists and writers, city builders and businessmen, veterans, 
artistic tombstones and even a nightime Holloween tour of murder victims 
graves.  We have repeated a few themes but it is usually at least five years 
between repeats.  We have done a couple of these in a smaller cemetery on 
our City's west side and one in a cemetery in nearby Manitou Springs.
They have been extremely popular and we have had to limit the tours to 40 
people maximum.  One year we had over a hundred show up and had to 
employ a portable PA system- something that we have vowed to never do 
again.
We begin with an act of civil disobedience by having a sack lunch in the 
cemetery before we begin the tour.  Interestingly enough, there is a City 
ordinance forbidding picnicking in the cemetery.  We try to get people to 
realize that cemeteries are for the living- not the dead.
Our purpose is to teach our citizens about the lives of people who have made 
contributions to our community and to expose them to the very beautiful and 
peaceful setting that exists in the cemetery.  I would venture to say that our 
staff has learned more about the history of our community by doing these 
tours than anything else we have done.  It allows us to connect the dots (so 
to speak) between momentous (and not so momentous) community events 
and activities by focusing on the lives behind those events.  The tours also 
generate interest among the public for preservation efforts in the cemetery.
One challenge that we have come across is that obituary details have varied 
greatly through the years.  Some decades had very brief entries that lack any 
significant detail.  So- for instance, if we come across an interesting 
tombstone that we would like to include in our tour of artistic stones, and we 
only find a brief obituary- we may have to skip this grave for lack of detail 
about the person that we can talk about.
Another challenge is the popularity of these events.  In order to limit the tours 
to a group that can hear a speaker without artificial amplification we must be 
careful with our publicity.  We want some media coverage- but not too much.  
The day that we had over a hundred was the result of a radio station 
advertising the tour and telling people to just show up.
I don't know if all museums want to do this activity, but it seems to have 
become increasingly popular lately.  We will continue to do these tours 
because they are fun and educational for us (the staff) and the public and 
they enhance our mission to interpret the history and culture of our region.
If I can answer any other questions, please feel free to contact me directly.
Sincerely,
David Ryan
Registrar
Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
www.cspm.org 

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