Historical Society's cemetery tours to being Thursday

The Hall County Historical Society's annual tours of the Grand Island City Cemetery and downtown Grand Island will begin Thursday.

The cemetery tours are scheduled for the Memorial Day weekend, May 22 through 24. The Thursday tour begins at 6 p.m. and two Friday tours are set for 2 and 6 p.m. On Saturday, the tour starts at 9:30 a.m.

The tours are free for members of the Hall County Historical Society and $5 for nonmembers. Membership in the historical society is $25 per family.

Because the size of each group is limited to 25 people, reservations should be made in advance by contacting Fred Roeser, 4262 Michigan Avenue, Grand Island, NE 68803; phone, (308) 384-2154.

Skip Meyer of Worms, a noted Central Nebraska historian and cemetery expert, will again lead the tours. He will recount stories of early Hall County settlers buried in the City Cemetery. He also will describe the designs and epitaphs on gravestones, which offer often unique stories.

The City Cemetery tour will last about two and a half hours. Participants are asked to park in the Bosselman Office parking lot to the east of the cemetery to keep lanes in the cemetery free for traffic.

The tour covers the cemetery on the south side of Stolley Park Road, the oldest part of the cemetery. The tour will start in the south cemetery's northeast corner just behind Bosselman's office.

Meyer also will conduct walking tours of Grand Island on Sunday, June 1, and Sunday, July 6. Interested participants will meet in the old Dodge School parking lot, east of the Liederkranz, at 5:30 p.m. each Sunday.

Cost for the downtown tour is $15 per person, with funds going for Plum Street Station, a property of the Hall County Historical Society. Reservations can by made by calling Roeser (308-384-2154).

The old Dodge School site is a good starting point for a historical tour because it was a site of a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. Across the street is the Liederkranz, established very early as a German social club. Also nearby, at the corner of Second and Walnut streets, is the old Carnegie Library, where Teddy Roosevelt attended the groundbreaking ceremonies. Meyer also will recount many events in downtown Grand Island's history of nearly a century and a half.

The walking tour will take about two and a half hours.