Historic Glenwood Cemetery Chosen for 2022 Park City Museum Ornament

Photo: Claire Wiley for Historic Park City Alliance

The Park City Museum’s much-anticipated 2022 holiday ornament features the historic Glenwood Cemetery.

Local artist, Peg Bodell, created the design. Her first sketches portrayed the moving beauty and uniqueness of the crafted headstones, aspen trees, stream, flowers and walking trail with the gate in the background. The final depiction features the gate in the foreground but opening to invite wanderers to the beauty and history within.

Bodell feels the gate only tells a small part of the Glenwood Story. “I've been told many guests to our community walk by the gate and assume it is just another gated community and don't realize or learn the rich history of our ancestors who built this town. I had the idea to create an "open gate" giving the museum an opportunity to welcome and encourage everyone to actually walk through the gates and experience the Glenwood for themselves.”

Indeed, the Museum has done just that. For the first time this summer, a guided tour of Glenwood was scheduled twice weekly. It became very popular and well-attended. Watch for them to return next summer.

Since 2020, the ornaments include a local wildflower, this year it is daisies. Summer visitors are treated to stands of wild daisies amongst the other wildflowers. “Daisies are uplifting, cheerful, and bright flowers that according to Celtic legend,” explains Bodell, “are sprinkled by God on the earth to cheer up parents who have lost a child. The Glenwood does have more than its share of infant burials but the daisies are a welcome sight to all visitors who can't help to notice how they thrive from year to year.”

Being a long-time Parkite, Bodell, has her own special memories of Glenwood. “As an artist I have spent many hours admiring the artistic craft that decorate the family and fraternal headstones and make them unique to our mountain community. Its natural setting has provided an organic backdrop for many of my paintings. The solitude and beauty of the Glenwood's natural surrounding provides a meditative moment that cannot be duplicated anywhere else in our mountains. It has been a special place to just sit on a blanket with my children and share our love for over forty years.”

The ornament is available to Museum members only, through November 1, and to the public after that in the Museum Store.