Karen Peters of the Okotoks and District Historical Society took about 20 or so of us curious people on a free guided walk of the oldest section of the Okotoks Cemetery.

We heard fascinating stories of the challenges and hardships experienced by early pioneers of Okotoks.

As you wander through the cemetery you recognize names from around town, names that you will find on buildings and streets in Okotoks.

Peters has the very enlightening and sometimes humorous background stories on many of these names.

She told us about the unmarked graves, which is a large open area near the oldest section where people are buried, but with no way of telling exactly where.

Peters has a story about how she was able to research and help one of these families find their lost grave.

With the research she has done, one puzzle piece that keeps coming up missing is information on some of these women, providing nothing other than the fact that they were wives and mothers.

We also found out just how many children were lost in the early years and their graves are easy to spot as they are the ones with lambs on them. 

Some very beautiful and elaborate headstones are there as well as many simple ones, and they all have a story.

I highly recommend this tour! It was very interesting and I found out even more about our Town of Okotoks.