Cathy Altepeter doesn't see ghosts when she visits Memorial Park Cemetery but, in a way, they do speak to her-and she wants to know and share their stories.

For Altepeter, the cemetery is a living history book-each grave-marker a window into the past and the people who made their home here.

listen live watch live

"People think that cemeteries are morbid, but they're not," said Altepeter, of East Grand Forks. "They're filled with history-people who lived without running water, electricity, cars and iPhones and had a perfectly good life."

She has been giving tours of Grand Forks' Memorial Park Cemetery, pointing out the graves and sharing some tidbits about the inhabitants who were silenced long ago.

"There are lots of fun stories out here-interesting stories, historical stories," she said.

It's a place to learn about life here in the late 1870s, "when Grand Forks was a couple of buildings."

Altepeter's interest in those stories grew out of genealogy research on her own family, she said.

She and her husband Mike Altepeter "do a lot of genealogy. We ran around Minnesota and parts of North Dakota" looking for information on their ancestors.

But despite all their efforts, their family history may never be complete.

"I'm always looking for something," she said.

"There's a saying, 'You're never done with your family tree until you get back to Adam and Eve.'"

Sharing insights

Altepeter began giving tours when people who heard about her interest started asking her to take them around the cemetery.

"I've done this for private groups, members of the genealogical society, and an exercise group from Choice (Health and Fitness)," she said.

Last fall, she offered a tour for the public and placed a notice in the Herald to alert people of the opportunity. She gave the second annual tour in late September.

Funds raised from the tours go toward the cost of maintaining the cemetery, she said.

Last year, she led a group of seniors from Sacred Heart School on a tour.

"I thought they wouldn't be interested," she said. "But they were. The tour lasted an hour."

She talked about pioneers, families, community leaders and others.

"I tell the kids, they came here and had a life so you could have an easier one."

At the grave of a man who played an instrument in the orchestra at the Metropolitan Opera House in Grand Forks, she asked the students if they knew where the opera house is located.

None did.

They were surprised to learn that, today, it's the site of Rhombus Guys Brewery, she said.

"I also know of a man who fell to his death there," she said. "Buildings have stories to tell too."

Caring caretakers

Memorial Park Cemetery has become a special place for the Altepeters.

"We've been hanging out at Memorial Park for five years," she said. She and Mike do volunteer work, like edging and tree-trimming, to maintain the grounds.

"We do what we can to help out, all with the permission of the manager," she said.

This patch of land gives anyone willing to take notice some glimpses into the lives of people who ended their days here.

On a recent visit, Altepeter pointed out the grave of George Turpin, who was born in 1865 and died in 1907. In death, he's surrounded by family members.

"They are one of the earliest African-American families in Grand Forks," she said.

Turpin's father, she learned, was born in Kentucky in 1835, she said. "He was probably a slave."

"Here's Iver Johnson, born in Norway, occupation: wagonmaker," she said. "You don't see that occupation on census records anymore."

Here and there are the graves of children, victims of illness mostly but also accidents.

"Harrison Whaling, 16, died of lung disease," she read from her tour notes.

The oldest grave in the cemetery is that of a 2-year-old child, who died in 1878, she said. At that time, "infant and childhood death was expected."

Tuberculosis "ran rampant," she said, and deaths from injuries were not uncommon.

Shamrocks decorate the headstones of some of the Irish immigrants who found their way to this part of the country. One proudly states in large letters, "Born in Ireland," which represents "a little piece of home," she said.

"There are veterans here from every war, except the Revolutionary War," Altepeter said, strolling the grounds.

Among them are at least 70 with ties to the Civil War, identified with the initials, "GAR," which stands for "Grand Army of the Republic," she said.

"Those veterans were very close. They took care of each other. They stuck together," she said. "When one of them was sick, they'd sit by the bedside."

Clues to the past

Armed with the names, dates and other information from certain headstones, Altepeter searches online and pores over microfiche images of past issues of the Grand Forks Herald and the Crookston Times, as well as federal census records.

"I'm a research addict," she said. "I have a three-ring binder of obituaries, mostly (dated) before 1923."

The stories are so unusual, she said, "you can't make this stuff up."

People would be "very surprised" to know that the first mayors of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks are both buried here, she said.

They may also be surprised to learn that East Grand Forks was initially called "Nashville," she said, named for William Nash who obtained the first permit to operate a post office there.

"You could make a movie about this guy," she said. "He was attacked by Indians and barely survived."

The "well-to-do farmer" operated a 700-acre farm on the banks of the Red River, she said.

Insights like these keep Altepeter intrigued by the occupants of the cemetery.

"You look up something and you don't know what you're going to find," she said. "And you find amazing stories. Lots of amazing stories."