HOLLADAY -- Within a new city, there rest some very old stories.
Holladay Memorial Park, located just east of the Cottonwood Mall in the newly incorporated city of Holladay, is the oldest privately owned cemetery in the valley."The whole history of Holladay is wrapped up here in the cemetery," said general manager Gov Holt. "And not very many people even know it's here at all."
There are about 3,000 people interred on the 12-acre lot, and many of the earliest graves date back to the 1850s.
According to Holt, this was the second cemetery designated by Brigham Young after pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley.
"The first was in Pioneer Park, near the fort," he said.
"Then Holladay was next, and finally the Salt Lake City Cemetery," Holt said.
In 1986, construction crews digging foundations for an apartment complex accidently unearthed those first pioneer graves.
The LDS Church turned the S.L. City Cemetery estate over to the city in 1855. But Holladay Memorial was owned by the church for another 120 years.
Through that time, LDS leaders called members to serve as sextons and groundskeepers.
"My wife's great-grandfather was the sexton from 1870 until about 1900," Holt said.
Unfortunately, some of the early records for the cemetery are lost.
"For example, we know the first interment was in 1848, but we're not sure who that was or where they are," Holt said.
The cemetery is laid out using the same coordinate grid Brigham Young directed for city planning.
"So a burial location might read 'third east, first south, and space number 10,' " Holt said. "Families bought entire sections, and that has helped us to fill in some of the gaps due to lost records. There are about 200 people we're not sure about, but we have a hunch on many of them because we know where other family members are buried."
Many of the wood and sandstone markers broke or wore away years ago. But a few remain.
"There's one for a Mr. Andrus that is very old," Holt said. "The marker reads 1851. He was a polygamist, and he had the names of all 10 wives written on this marker."
"And then William Casto, he was one of the early settlers who served in the Mormon Battalion." Last Memorial Day, a special marker was placed on his grave.
Holt says nowhere else in the world are there so many little cemeteries. "Most every city in Utah has one, and the church started most of them."
A man named John MacKay, who had been charged to care for the property in 1960, bought it from the LDS Church in 1975.
The company Holt works for, Security National Financial, bought it in 1992.
"Then, there were about 40-50 burials a year. Now we're up to over 100," he said.
Holt says a newly remodeled mortuary on Highland Drive, complete with a local artists gallery, has helped renew interest in the cemetery. But he attributes most of the growth to community spirit, people wanting their loved ones to rest in a place where Holladay's forefathers also lie.
"We knew Holladay city would be coming into being when we purchased the park, and I think people now feel a stronger loyalty to the area," he said. "It's exciting."