Some one Hundred and Fifty years ago, the Mormons came to Utah.
With this migration of people and animals, the LDS church decided
that their religious base needed to spread through the region to
create settlements that could grow both in faith and population.
In the Tooele (pronounced Two-ill'-uh for non-Utahns) valley,
the first Tooele cemetery is said to be haunted. Of course, like
all cemeteries, it has its share of urban legends, and fairly
famous local people, but this cemetery is special in how it was
created, and later moved.
Records indicate that the first Tooele cemetery was used between
1850 and 1867. These were years of hardship for many new residents
to the area, and nearly 100 bodies were buried somewhere close to
where this cache is located. However, unlike most cemeteries, there
were not “family” plots available to the residents of
the new settlement. Instead, individuals were buried in the order
that they died according to the next available plot. This means
that neighbors were buried next to neighbors, but rarely did a
family or family members find their bodies near each other unless a
tragedy struck. In addition, permanent grave markers were not
allowed. As a result, to this date, no one knows exactly whose
remains were in which coffin and where in the cemetery they were
placed.
In 1867, a new cemetery (currently still used) in Tooele was
established. Once the “new” cemetery was created, many
of the bodies were exhumed by hand and moved into their final
resting place. From what records are available, some 55 bodies were
moved at that time, though it still remains questionable as to
which of the 100 buried in the first cemetery were moved to the new
one. If you can do math, you understand that this leaves 45 bodies
unaccounted for and left behind in the old cemetery.
Adding insult to injury, in 1997, the original boundaries of the
first cemetery were determined. At issue, however, is that there is
now a major thoroughfare on one side, and houses built over some of
the former gravesites. Yes, the developer and owner of the
subdivision did manage to recover what he could of the remaining 45
bodies, and set up the small park at the cache location, but due to
the moving of the graves, and the order of the burials separating
many families from their loved ones it is said by many locals that
the ghosts of those first buried in this area still remain looking
either for their body or their lost loved ones.
This is one of a series of spooky Utah geocaches that stem from
urban legends about haunted places. The information contained here
in may or may not be true (or only partially true), and is designed
for thrills and chills. As with all the geocaches in this series,
please stick to normal waking hours to do these (say between 6 am
and 10 pm unless otherwise noted), and please do not disturb those
living/dead nearby. I’m sure you know this already, but
please be discreet. Lastly, have fun - I hope you don’t get
spooked easily!
There is a small off-street parking lot on the south side of the
cemetary.
