SeeCalifornia.com

Pictured is the annual “Stories in Stone” grave tour at Columbia State Historic Park, an actual Gold Rush era town. Guests meet at sunset and tour an historic graveyard by the light of an oil lantern. Research into the history of the “occupants” of this burial ground is woven into stories about their lives preceeding death. One woman (actor) sits next to a tiny grave stone for a baby she lost when the infant fell ill and passed. Grieving so much for her tiny child, the woman, too, meets an early fate by taking her own life, and is buried at this ‘Boot Hill’ (old West slang term).

If you’re looking for something unique, educational, and interesting to do this fall, why not participate in the living history surrounding the dead by taking a cemetery tour? In Long Beach the annual tour involves the local community with council members and even mayors getting into the act, donning costumes and playing the parts of deceased. It really brings the past to life and bridges the gap between people of different eras, showing we all face the same human condition and we all die, hopefully leaving an interesting or noteworthy story behind.