Crowds follow to the next stop on the 2009 tour of Mt. Hope Cemetery. Photo by Loretta S. StanawayLANSING, MI — The Friends of Lansing’s Historic Cemeteries will host its fifth annual Fall Walking Tour at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Lansing on Sunday, Sept. 25 from 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Titled “Lansing Legendaries,” this year’s tour features some of the “big shots” in Lansing’s history buried in the “high rent district” of the historic city cemetery. Included will be Dodge, Reutter, Prudden, Potter, Ranney, RE Olds, Sparrow, Kositchek, Barnes, Pattengill and others. There may be some descendants of featured families on hand to share tidbits of family lore and legacies as well.
New this year will be an original, family-friendly story written for the event and read by Lansing Storyteller Jennifer Otto, a picnic in the still under development “basin” area, and representatives on hand from several other cemetery-related groups like Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, DAR, Mid-Michigan Genealogical Society, Find A Grave, Lansing Area African American Genealogical Society, Ingham County Historical Commission, etc.
The picnic will include hot dogs, chips, popcorn and beverages and will take place in the basin, as will the storytelling. Attendees are invited to bring blankets or portable chairs. The representatives from other groups also will be in the basin to share their information and direct people to sites of interest within Mt. Hope Cemetery.
Additionally, The Friends will be selling their first calendar, featuring photos taken in the city cemeteries. Calendars will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis and orders may be placed for additional calendars to be printed and delivered later. The full-color photo calendars will be $18 each. Sale proceeds will go toward restoring the arch that used to be over the west entrance to North Cemetery or toward uprighting fallen monuments in Mt. Hope Cemetery.
This family-friendly event is free of charge and open to the public.
The Friends group exists to “promote, protect and prosper” Lansing’s three city-owned cemeteries – Evergreen, Mt. Hope, and North. They meet monthly on the first Thursday at Foster Community Center in room 109 at 7:00 p.m. All are welcome.
For more info, contact Loretta S. Stanaway, Friends president, at 517-648-5730.
This was printed in the September 11, 2011 – September 24, 2011 Edition.
