Spending Halloween In A Haunted Cemetery

I could not think of a better way to spend Halloween day than in a haunted cemetery! So....that's exactly what we did! We drove out to the Mercur Cemetery, and had a BLAST! We then drove over to the ghost town of Ophir, since it was just up the street from Mercur.

I heard about the Mercur Cemetery from our field experts, Chad and Jen. The Bonneville Mariner also did a great informative post about it recently.

This was my first trip to the Mercur Cemetery, even though I have been "dying" (haha) to go and check it out for months now! We didn't bother with the actual town of Mercur, as it is now closed to the public. It's the cemetery that holds all the mystery and mystique.

When we first arrived, parked the truck, and saw the "path" leading to the cemetery, all I could think of was the movie "Pet Sematary".  The path looked similar to the path leading to the Pet Sematary in the movie. Despite my fears, we carried on, and started up the path. When we reached the top of the mountain, and saw the cemetery, it was even cooler than I expected! Because it was Halloween, somebody had placed a jack-o-lantern at the entrance of the cemetery. Most of the graves are surrounded by old wooden fences, and my kids thought it looked like a maze.

We made our way throught the "maze" and ventured around the cemetery to look at all the graves. Many of the graves that do not have fences around them are surrounded by rock monuments. None of the gravestones are legible except for one, and it makes you wonder who these people were, what their lives were like in Old Mercur, and how they died.



Annie C. Jones
1897-1898



There is only one headstone that is somewhat legible, and that's the grave of a little girl, Annie C. Jones. Many cemetery visitors bring dolls and toys to lay on her grave.



Grave of Annie C. Jones
1897-1898





Many paranormal research teams choose the Mercur Cemetery as a place to records EVPs and watch for ghosts. Here are just a few sites that talk about the Mercur Cemetery:

Bonneville Mariner

Mercur History and Old Pictures

Paul Genesse

Salt Lake Area Paranormal Society (they have the location as Memory Grove..not correct)

Shadowlands (scroll down to Tooele)

Utah and Idaho Paranormal
Utah Outdoor Activities

To get to the Mercur Cemetery, go Westbound on I-80 and get off on the Tooele/Stansbury exit. Once you get off the exit, you are going to stay on that road for a while. It will take you past Stansbury Park, into Tooele, through Tooele, then through Stockton. You will then think you have gone too far, but you haven't! Keep going until you see a sign to turn Left for Mercur and Ophir. Take that Left turn! Keep going and you will see a sign leading to Ophir. DO NOT turn here for Mercur. Go past that (to get to Mercur), and a little further down the road you'll see a T in the road. If you see Mile Marker 9, then you just missed the turnoff. For some reason, there isn't a sign that says you need to turn for Mercur. If you are going the opposite way, there is a sign, but not from the direction you are going. Just watch for Mile Marker 9, turn around, and then you'll see the Mercur sign. The city of Mercur is closed to the public, but the Mercur Cemetery is where you want to go! Watch on the Right hand side for a big rock that has a sign on it that says "Mercur Cemetery". You are going to want to park here, then follow the path up the mountain to the cemetery (it's only about 1/4 mile walk, maximum!).



To view all the pictures we took at the Mercur Cemetery, CLICK HERE.

 

Peeking out of the long maze of wooden fences

surrounding the graves