Park City Museum board member Barbara Martz loves storytelling so much she earned a bachelor’s degree in history from University of California Irvine.So, it’s fitting that she will tell some local tales when she gives a free presentation called “Glenwood Cemetery — Park City’s Storybook” at 5 p.m., Oct. 23, at the Park City Museum Education and Collections Center, 2079 Sidewinder Drive.“Much of the lecture will be about the immigrant population who are buried in the Glenwood,” she said. “A good half of the adults who are buried there were born in another country, and since they were all from other countries, they kind of bonded together as a community, even though they didn’t speak the same languages.”Fraternal organizations, who hosted events that brought the immigrant community together, worked to establish the cemetery in 1885, Martz said.“They held dances, parties and other gatherings and brought these people together, most of whom worked in the mines or were families of miners,” she said. “But the main thing they were there for was life and burial insurance for these people. And I keep thinking what direction Park City would have gone had there not been organizations like them to build foreign relationships and provide bonding.”Martz will also talk about the children who are interred in the Glenwood.“I was also surprised at the ages of the children who are buried in the Glenwood,” she said.Of the nearly 950 people who are buried in the cemetery, one-third of the total burials are children under the age of 18, Martz said.“Most of them are under the age of 6, and the number of young children who died back then really surprised me,” she said. “But I don’t think that was atypical. I had a grandma who gave birth to 11 children, but four died before they were 2 years old.”Franternal organizations established the Glenwood Cemetery in 1885. The goal was to provide a burial space for those, especially immigrants, who worked in mines and their families. Credit: Park Record file photo by Tanzi PropstAnother third of the population buried in the Glenwood are mostly young parents, Martz said. “Many of the women in town died during childbirth or suffered some illness or infections after childbirth,” she said, “and many of the men who are buried there died in mining accidents or from mining consumption before they turned 50 years old.”The last third of those buried in the cemetery were the elderly, ages 50 and older, Martz said.“So you can kind of see what life was like back in those days when you look at the statistics,” she said. “I knew life was tough, but I didn’t realize how much tragedy was in people’s lives. Still, they persevered.” Martz, who has lived in the Park City area with her husband Ken since 1973, first ventured into the Glenwood Cemetery when the museum’s revived Glenwood Cemetery Association began to clean its five-acre parcel of land.“We knew it was there, but I don’t think I set foot in it until the mid- to late-’80s,” she said. “We lived out in Pinebrook at the time and had a teenaged neighbor who was working on his (Boy Scout) Eagle merit badge. One of the projects for that badge was the clean up of the Glenwood. Back then it was just a wheatfield and really just a mess.”Martz confessed she wasn’t too impressed with the cemetery at first, and it wasn’t until the Park City Museum’s late research historian Hal Compton, who died in 2020, asked her to get more involved when she started to take note.“It was in 2002, and Hal would present the annual Halloween at the Glenwood events where museum volunteers would dress up as some of the people who were buried in the cemetery and tell their stories,” she said. “We went to a couple of those, and he asked me if I would be interested in playing one of the characters.”Compton asked Martz to portray Margaret Shields, the wife of mayor John Shields. “John Shields was originally a grocer, and one night he shot himself in the bathtub,” Martz said. “Accident or intentional — no one knew the reason, but that was about when I really got interested in the Glenwood. I really started to think about Park City and the people who were buried there.”  Martz enjoys giving lectures like the Glenwood presentation because she liked sharing the history she has come across during her research.“I like telling the stories and showing the pictures, and I think people appreciate knowing those things,” she said. “I like going to lectures for the same reason. I like hearing about something that I haven’t heard before or learning something that I haven’t thought about before.”Martz hopes her Wednesday’s lecture will instill some kind of enthusiasm and care for the Glenwood.“The cemetery is a special place, and it needs our care and protection,” she said. “It had suffered a lot of vandalism during the ’70s because it was neglected for so long.”Martz remembers a few years ago when she and the Glenwood Cemetery Association hired James “Rusty” Brenner, owner of Texas Cemetery Restoration, to restore the headstones in the Glenwood.“We asked him if he had seen vandalism in other old cemeteries, and he said, ‘Yes,’” she said. “He told us when the vandals are arrested and questioned, they always say, ‘We didn’t think anybody cared.’ And that struck me.”So, Martz uses her lectures to help preserve the Glenwood by instilling empathy.“Many people who will come to the lecture already care about the Glenwood, but maybe those who haven’t thought about it will care a little more,” she said. “Like any historic part of Park City, without the preservation it will be lost.”‘Glenwood Cemetery — Park City’s Storybook’ LectureWhen: 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 23 Where: Park City Museum Education and Collections Center, 2079 Sidewinder Drive Cost: Free Web: parkcityhistory.orgThe post Presentation resurrects the significance of the Glenwood Cemetery appeared first on Park Record.