Olds and area residents will have a chance to delve into the history of the community on Sept. 28 when Mary Hays and friends hold a walking tour of the Olds Cemetery.
But it won't be just any tour. The event, which begins at 2 p.m., will include stories of people buried in the cemetery, told by local actors.
Afterward, a reception will be held at the Mountain View Museum and Archives. The museum will also serve as the backup site for the event if it rains — or snows.
The Olds Cemetery Tour — Our legacy, Our Story is a project by Mary Hays who has written several plays about Olds' history over the years. It's part of Alberta Culture Days.
Hays says the idea for the project began a couple of years ago.
"This particular one started with a walk at the cemetery with archivist Jeffery Kearney and my friends from the town of Olds and we said 'wouldn't it be great to tell the stories of the early people here at the cemetery and tell them in the cemetery,'" she says.
So for about a year, Hays and Kearney looked through obituaries of early settlers buried in the cemetery.
"They are beautifully written. They talk about the birth and the death of the person, the life of the person. They list the person's family," Hays says. "Jeffery and I cooked up this scheme where we would use those obituaries for a walking tour guidebook."
Information from those obituaries was eventually turned into a script.
They also worked with Elder Doreen Bergum to tell the stories of early Metis residents as well.
"We'll have about 40 minutes of storytelling where people will be seated and then we're going to give them the beautiful Olds Cemetery Walking Tour guidebook and let them loose to look around at those beautiful old historic headstones," Hays says.
"One of our headstones, the earliest one, 1894, is the Walker twins — Stanley and Leslie — and they were babies who died at, I think it was eight months of age. So you know, that tells us an incredible story," she says.
"We've got a big afternoon planned and I'm sure hoping everybody will come out to really explore this beautiful park-like setting of the Olds Cemetery," Hays says, adding she really admires the work town staff do to not only maintain the cemetery but give it a park-like setting.
Hays loves to tour cemeteries.
"I go to the cemetery whenever I'm on holidays, because I find just by looking at the headstones, I can really get a sense of a community — who the people were, where did they come from. Headstones are a wonderful way to have a glimpse of the hopes and dreams of people," she says.
Hays is grateful to the Town of Olds, Mountain View Museum and Archives, Alberta Historical Resources and Mountain View Publishing for supporting the project.
"Honestly, we are the envy of all of Alberta with how our town and museum and really business community, are all working together to tell the story of Olds," Hays says.
"It's just been a lovely networking project."
