Spooky Woodland Cemetery Tour Gears up for Halloween – October 28th, 2012

It’s easy to forget that Woodland used to be the hot spot in Yolo County. It was a wild and rocking place with outlaws and cowboys and gun-toting pioneer women. This Halloween you have the chance to tour the city’s cemetery and learn about its history from the inhabitants of the cemetery!

According to The Daily Democrat:

The Yolo County Historical Society is hosting the tour titled, “Rogues and Rebels,” from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28. Tickets are available on the day of the event at the cemetery’s Cross Street entrance gate.

“A lot of times people don’t realize how historical this area is,” said Chris Dreith, owner of The Home Improvements Group, Inc., who is authoring the tour’s script. “Just by walking through the cemetery, you get an incredible amount of depth of history of the area, including pioneering families — some of which still live here.”

This year, the Yolo County Historical Society will explore the criminal elements of the county as well as the rebelliousness of local women in three vignettes featuring the area’s colorful past.

“Staffed by local actors, you will be able to watch the action take place as shoot outs occur, women march to close saloons and men are influenced by drink and our notorious ‘fallen doves,'” said Kathy Harryman, Historical Society board member.

A narrator will recite the tales as actors…portray the events in the background. All the characters in the vignettes are buried in the Woodland City Cemetery, at Cross and West Streets, including Jim Monroe, who panned for gold in Alaska before acting as Yolo County’s Sheriff for 28 years.

“He’s going to come back to life and talk about the rowdy county,” Harryman said. “And it was rowdy, apparently. It was like the wild west. (This) is an ag county, but historically it’s really rich in what people have done in this town. We’re focusing on the seedy part this year — the rouges and rebels.”

So put on your walking shoes and bring along your PKE (or Psychokinetic Energy Meter) and proton pack. Just don’t cross your streams “or life as we know it will cease to exist” according to Dr. Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters.