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‘Ghost
walks’ infuriate cemetery manager - 20081103
BY SCOT ANDREW PITZER
Ghost walks are trespassing in Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg
at night, angering the property’s superintendent, who
feels that the groups aren’t respecting the dead.
“Unfortunately, one of the offshoots
of having ghost walks is that people are coming into our cemetery
after hours,” Evergreen Supt. Brian Kennell told Borough
Council’s Public Safety Committee this week. “We
do not have a fence, but even a fence won’t keep people
out of the cemetery. It’s just infuriating that cameras
are flashing all night long.”
The 153-year-old cemetery is open from dawn
to dusk.
“It’s common sense that they’re
not supposed to be there after dark,” said Gettysburg
Police Department Chief Joe Dougherty.
Evergreen Cemetery is located along the 700
block of Baltimore Street, and straddles the Cumberland Township
line.
“These are not organized groups that
are coming into the cemetery,” said Councilman John Butterfield,
chairman of the board’s Public Safety Committee. “These
are unaffiliated people coming into the cemetery after hours.”
The groups are bothersome because of the noise
and constant photo-taking, Kennell argued.
“When the cemetery was formed, we wanted
people to visit, and we want people to walk through,”
said Kennell. “But with the fascination of ghosts, it’s
flash, flash, flash all the time. I’m worried that somebody
is going to be upset when I ask them to leave, and I’m
afraid that they’ll vandalize the property.”
Some officials are upset that the cemetery
has become a tourist hot-spot.
“My parents are buried in Evergreen Cemetery,
and I use it as a place of reverence and remembrance —
not as a tourist attraction,” said Councilman Butterfield.
Kennell is also concerned about tour buses
that are parking near the cemetery’s gate, impeding the
flow of traffic on Baltimore Street.
“Over time, this has been a continuing
problem. If you’ve ever pulled out of the Evergreen Cemetery
entrance trying to go onto Baltimore Street, it can be unsafe,”
said Kennell, using photos to illustrate his argument. “People
are going to get hit because they can’t see the traffic.”
Authorities plan to monitor the situation.
“It’s a hazard, so please call us,”
Chief Dougherty told Kennell. “We’ll try to keep
an eye on it.”
Town officials have suggested installing signs
and posting the cemetery’s hours in and around the property.
“A sign may make a difference, and how
you word it may make a difference,” said Councilman Michael
J. Birkner. “If you don’t have private signage now,
then it’s understandable why people don’t realize
that they shouldn’t be there.”
Gettysburg is now home to more than a dozen
ghost tour companies, which flood the town’s sidewalks
on a nightly basis.
But Kennell said that they do not have permission
to enter his property. Officials are sympathetic.
“A cemetery is a very private place,
and it’s not appropriate for these groups to be in there,”
said Borough Council President Dick Peterson.
Built in 1855, the cemetery is privately owned
and operated. It is often confused with the National Cemetery,
which it sits beside, owned by Gettysburg National Military
Park.
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