Program Outline for NAI Dying to Get In
I. Introduction:
A. Welcome to: Dying to Get In, Interpreting an Historic Rural Cemetery
Outline of this Workshop:
Introduce myself and Bayfield Heritage Tours, LLC
Introduce you to Bayfield, WI
Talk about cemeteries in general
Talk about Bayfield Cemetery in particular
How I go about constructing a cemetery walk
Portions of my cemetery walk script
Question and Answer
Will email notes: business card, sign-up, or send me an email
B. Virginia Hirsch, owner and founder of BHT
Background: degree in theatre, NAI certificated Interpretative guide
Not a traditional guide—first and foremost a storyteller
Discovered power of story as a staff development trainer
Use theatre skills: plot, setting, costume, lighting, “stage” drama
Helpful books:
Passionate Fact – Susan Strauss
From Plot to Narrative - Elizabeth Ellis
BHT founded 2003—with emphasis on telling the stories of Bayfield Rich resources: local books, collections, residents
Offers: “A Lighthearted Walk thru Old Bayfield,
2 Ghosts and Legends of Old Bayfield walks,
Sven’s Architect Tour,
Tall Sails and Fish Tails maritime history walk,
Dying to Get In cemetery walk
Self-Guided Walking tour books
C. Ask audience:
Who here has taken a cemetery tour?
Who here gives or your organization gives cemetery tours?
(Maybe time later for you to introduce yourself)
Who is thinking about developing a cemetery tour?
II. Why Offer a Cemetery Walk?
A. Ask audience: Why do people visit cemeteries?
Make a list
Also: from Cemetery Tourism by Irene S. Levine
To learn about history in a unconventional way
Learn about different cultural traditions
Learn about changing attitudes to life and death
Reflect on unique stories of people buried there
Spiritual experience
Genealogy research—discover ancesters, etc
Photography, art, iconography, architecture, landscaping,
Gardening, bird-watching, restoration, walking, biking,
Running and commune with nature
(Power Point presentation)
III. Where is Bayfield, Wisconsin?
Location - Maps
Apostle Island National Lakeshore – 21 islands in NPS
Ice Caves – winter 2013
Deep water harbor – Today one of the world’s best sailing areas
Historic Town founded in 1856 to deep water harbor, forests, fish, quarries
Size – about 10 by 12 blocks (about 500 residents)
Tourism is its main industry today.
B. My first encounter with Bayfield’s cemetery:
Seeking the death date while researching another walk
Not accustomed to cemeteries, cautious, insight into guest reactions
Finding the graves of the early pioneers/founding fathers- wow-
rock stars- led to too much focus on town history rather than cemetery
Johnson’s cemetery tour – stories of common people
IV. Why Offer a Walk of this Small Town Historic Cemetery?
Power Point:
A. Physical attributes:
Size: small 10 acres
Divided Catholic/Protestant
Still in use by local families
Well maintained by the city of Bayfield
Historic: founded 1888 with graves from still older cemetery
Physical assets: flat, paved walkways (handicapped accessible)easy walking
Location: 1 mile from town, easy to find, few distractions
Open to the public
B. What does the cemetery have to offer?
(Taking stock of it assets-use your camera)
Various types and variety of gravestones: colonial to contemporary
Interesting Iconography from different time periods
Inscriptions that make you want to know more
Local people with interesting/humorous/tragic stories
People of all social classes: wealthy lumber barons, entrepreneurs, fishermen, farmers, new immigrants, island families. Children and infants, indigent, war heros
Monuments and Memorials
Veterans’ from Civil War to the present
Victorian curbing
Tragic natural disaster: Flood of 1942
Victorian gravestones and poetry/inscriptions
C. What are the challenges?
Not a famous historic cemetery
No one famous buried there
Not remarkable in landscaping, monuments, statues, mausoleums
Which part of the cemetery to cover?
Still in active use - need to respect ancestors of local families still in the community5 or 6 generations
Calming early fears about the tour (tell Ruth Moon story)
Family plots are privately owned but cemetery is public, city maintained, not gated, open to all
Get permissions from city/notify law enforcement (tell cop story)
Bears – no food or beverage
Poor dry soil (fire hazard) (no candle lanterns)
No street lights, no restrooms
V. Creating the Walk - What are the challenges in developing the tour?
A. Some guidelines for all on BHT walks
No more than 1 hour, 20 minutes in length
No more than a mile in distance
No duplication of stories told on other walks –different stories about same people ok
All stories need to be interesting, true and historically accurate
Led by a costumed guide in the persona of a local historic person
Needs to be interesting visually
B. How can the tour tell some of the history of the community?
Who were the first settlers?
What was early settlement life like?
What kind of people were they?
What challenges did they face?
C. How can the tour tell the stories of the times?
Lighthouses/Lighthouse keepers
Infant mortality
Impact of the Civil War on community and on death customs
Infant mortality
Accommodating death into everyday life
Victorian death customs
Changing messages/icons on tombstones
D. What are the challenges to the guide?
Who will tell the stories/lead the tour?
In what persona?
Real local person
Not famous
Credible to tell the stories
Wife of newspaper editor
Buried in the cemetery
What time period? (1887)
Costume? Hats, gloves
How to be true to history & respectful to deceased, & their descendants
Keep it moving – People don’t like to stand
Keep it interesting with good variety of sites and stories
Engage the guests as participants
Balance the tragic with the humorous (always find a way to do this after a tragic tale (like Shakespeare)
Reassure those with cemetery jitters – be calm, welcoming
How to relate the “guidelines” --parking, smoking, food, bears, paved pathways (website and introduction)
Where to start and end the walk – full circle
E. What are the opportunities for guest participation?
History of graveyards
Reading monuments/gravestones
Asking for opinions
Reading stories about a person
Asking guests questions
Answering guests’ questions
F. What can Guests learn from the walk?
Be respectful, not fearful of cemetery
An overview of area history
Changing nature of cemeteries
Changing nature of death customs
Changing types of gravestones, iconography, inscriptions
What to look for when visiting a cemetery
VI. Cemetery tours—developed in 4 stages
- History walk- Dying to Get In, two guides, 2 PM—too long, too much focus on tring to tell the history of the town,
Too much background givenkground is needed?
B.. Twilight in the Cemetery – During Apple Festival (early October) - Halloween themed, Victorian death customs stories, costume
C. Moonlight in the Cemetery – more spooky elements, true local ghost story at end, lanterns, full moon nights, persona of Mrs. Currie Bell
D. Dying to Get in – Late afternoon walk—can be presented several ways; a variation of Moonlight in the Cemetery
VII. Excerpts from the tour;
Introduction of Mrs. Currie Bell
Look at a tombstone, what can we learn from it
Brief history of graveyards (get participant volunteers)
Brief history of Bayfield cemeteries
Introduce Luick—ask them about his character
Bicksler family—child mortality—children’s grave
Civil War—monument, veterans graves, honor, titles (humor)
Civil War influence—on death customs
Victorian cemetery—attitudes toward death, conditions in community, curbing, why remove?
Earliest graves, colonial tombstones, apron, first settlers,
Elijah Pike story(volunteer)
Flood of 1942 – story of the cemetery ravine
How cemeteries change over time- pathways
Last grave, Pureair Sanitarium, Potters Field
Chester Bruett
Changing types of tombstones. icons, inscriptions: little lambs, McCarthy, Ladd
Victorian funeral customs: black clothes, drawn curtains, black wreath, family parlor, embalmer, 24 watch, internment,
Mr. Sense story- “The Corpse that would not leave the House”
Victorian tombstones, mausoleums, Edgar Allen Poe, poetry
Bell family plot, three graves, Currie and dog, promoter of Bayfield
VIII Question and Answer
Name and email (or business card with email) if you want the notes
Book: Dying to Get in
Stroll Book
CD
Which cemetery tours are here?
IX Other considerations
A. Publicity (Some example on display)
Chamber of Commerce -website
Posters
Rack cards
Press released to area media
BHT website & Facebook
B. Who will want to take the tour?
Tourists interested in town’s history
Tourists interested in cemeteries
Local residents
95% tourists; 5% local