Mesa Historical Museum to host annual educational cemetery tour
The Mesa Historical Museum is set to host their annual tour of the Mesa cemetery on Oct. 21 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., to remember the lives of residents that shaped the city’s history.
The self-guided tour transports attendees into the lives and rich history of those buried in the cemetery, each year honoring a different selection of people.
Tickets are available online before the tour for $15, and $20 the day of, with free entry for children six years old and under.
Proceeds from the event benefit the Mesa Historical Museum’s operations and future events, according to executive director of the Mesa Historical Museum, Susan Ricci.
The museum collaborates with local volunteers, sometimes the descendants of someone buried at the cemetery, to narrate an oral history that brings life back into the name etched onto the headstone.
For the first time this year, Ricci said that members of the Latter-day Saints in Mesa have collaborated with the museum to create a special website that allows people to see if they have family ties through genealogy to Mesa’s history, or people buried at the Mesa cemetery.
More information and QR codes are expected to be available at the tour to give people access to the website.
A featured speaker presents a list of all the descendants of early Latter-day Saints member, Benjamin F. Johnson. Photo taken on Oct. 24, 2020. (Photo courtesy of the Mesa Historical Museum)
This year will educate local residents who may have heard Mesa high school’s motto “carry on,” which was inspired by the last request of Mesa’s own Zedo Ishikawa, who died in 1932 at only 17-years-old.
Ishikawa’s grave site at the cemetery will be hosted and narrated by his direct descendant, Brian Ishikawa.
The story of Arizona’s own Ernesto Miranda will be narrated on top of his grave by Mesa Historical Museum board member and law student, Jacob Martinez.
Miranda became known for the titular “Miranda rights,” in which his supreme court case ruled that all law enforcement were required to inform an arrested person of their right to not self incriminate.
Tracing the origins of the Mesa cemetery itself, one of the featured graves will be the first victim of the 1883 smallpox outbreak in Mesa that claimed the lives of 44 people
The outbreak was the original reason a cemetery in Mesa was created, moving to its current location in 1891.
The first victim of the outbreak was the child of Mesa’s first mayor, and who’s burial site will be honored by a local high school theater student.
Dr. Lucius Charles Alston was the first black doctor in Mesa, and his featured grave site will be narrated by local African American historian, Dr. Lucius Charles Alston.
Ricci said that the opportunity to connect with local historians and residents eager to share their story could not have been made possible without the collaboration of the City of Mesa cemetery.
“This is one of our big fundraisers every year, and they [city of Mesa cemetery] are very kind to us to let us let people come in, and the reason we do it early in the morning is so we can be as unobtrusive as possible,” said Ricci.
The Mesa Cemetery is located at 212 North Center Street, with parking available anywhere but the main roadway.
This story was edited on 10/10/2023 to correct an error made at the time of publication. The initial feature photo was changed due to a technical error in photo dimensions.
