Take an ancestral journey of the cemetery May 11, 2001 By AMY SCHOON Standard-Examiner staff On a Monday afternoon in mid-April, Gilbert Belnap, sporting pioneer-era dress clothes and a bushy white beard, took a stroll through the Ogden City Cemetery for the first time since his death in 1899. He stopped at his own grave marker, turned toward the road and opened his mouth to speak. Those who thought they saw the former cemetery caretaker and Weber County sheriff wandering amongst the tombstones were not hallucinating or experiencing an encounter with a ghostly world. They were watching one of his descendants during a dress rehearsal for an upcoming cemetery tour. "This is living proof of the settlers. What a connection. The descendants of these settlers continue their stories," Fran McFarland said. "They're bringing the cemetery to life." McFarland is coordinator of the "Living History Cemetery Tour," part of an ongoing series of events celebrating Ogden's sesquicentennial. Tours are scheduled for Monday and for a week from today. "Residents" of Ogden's cemetery at 20th Street and Monroe Boulevard now rest in peace, the tour guides' script reads, "after giving their lives to the building up of a place we are proud to call home." The sesquicentennial committee thought a cemetery tour would be the perfect opportunity to share the stories of Ogden's early settlers with today's residents, McFarland said. The members of the committee also hope to raise enough money to restore one particular monument that marks a sad moment in the area's history. A train called the Pacific Limited crashed while traveling west from Ogden over the Great Salt Lake on New Year's Eve, 1944. A flat, rectangular marble marker was placed in a serene, tree-shaded spot in the Ogden City Cemetery as a memorial to the 25 passengers who died. The marker is barely recognizable as anything more than a slab of rock these days. The ground beneath it sank, causing large cracks that spew stray blades of grass and bunches of weeds. When groundskeepers clip the grass short, the faint outline of a train becomes visible. Almost no PREVIEW WHAT: 'Living History Cemetery Tour' WHEN: 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday and Friday, May 18 WHERE: Ogden City Cemetery, 20th Street and Monroe Boulevard, Ogden TICKETS: Donation requested, $5/adults, $2/children, with proceeds going to restoration of a monument to victims of a 1944 train crash. 392-0688. trace of an inscription remains. McFarland and her committee are not charging admission for the tour, but they are asking for donations to use for the restoration of the monument. She expects it will cost at least several hundred dollars. The tour should be well worth a donation, said McFarland. She has received 40 detailed, descriptive narratives from people whose relatives rest in the cemetery. Of those, eight will be highlighted during the tour. In addition to the descendants' narratives, tour guides also will point out other notable grave sites and tell a tidbit or two about each. The Belnap story LaGrande Belnap volunteered to talk about his great-grandfather, a man who trekked across the plains and was sent by Brigham Young to settle in Ogden - then Brownsville - in 1850. Belnap used an extensive family history research to prepare. He praises his great-grandfather's dedication to his faith, the land and the law. "I felt like somebody needed to represent the family. This means a great deal to me. He was such a great leader, and his heritage is outstanding. He stood for such good things," Belnap said. LaGrande Belnap's wife, Beverly, came to watch the dress rehearsals and said she thought visitors would be amazed by the amount of history they could learn by taking the tour. After hearing several stories of strife and tragedy, she said she "didn't realize the impact of what our ancestors had to go through to settle the area." Although he follows the history accurately throughout his presentation, LaGrande Belnap admitted he did fudge a bit with the costume. He plans to wear a dapper 112