COEUR d’ALENE — For Museum of North Idaho tour guide Hunter Kearns, a cemetery isn’t just a resting place, but a place of reverence, humanity and way to walk through history. 

“I think it’s important to recognize that they’re people,” he said. “I think it’s just as important to recognize their value, as in, they had people that loved them and that they loved.” 

On Thursday, Kearns led his weekly tour of St. Thomas Cemetery, dubbed the “Patriots and Pioneers” tour. The intimate event was attended by seven locals, all with a budding interest in local history. 

“It was interesting, it was nice to learn the history of the town,” said Sue Blais.

The St. Thomas Cemetery was established in 1899 and is unique in who is entombed there. 

“There is quite a bit of history here, being one of the only Catholic cemeteries in the region,” Kearns said.  

It was refurbished in 2021, adding a fence, benches and more. The refurbishment also added commemorative bricks on some of the oldest gravesites whose markings or memorials have faded or been lost to time. 

Kearns’ tour takes several stops across different sections of the cemetery, highlighting old founders, common folk and local celebrities with Kearns orating the history of all of them.

One of the stops is Matthew Hayden’s gravesite, the namesake for the city of Hayden, Hayden Lake and Hayden Creek. 

Hayden, like many others in the cemetery, was an Irish immigrant. In his early life he served as indentured servant, and as a veteran, he was deployed to the events known as "Bleeding Kansas."

Hayden moved to what is now known as Honeysuckle Beach in 1878. He is responsible for one of the first orchards in the region, a hotel in Cataldo and more. 

His legacy lives on not just through the city, lake and creek named after him, but also his descendants, some of whom, according to Kearns, “still live around here.” 

The tour covers several other historical figures that are central to the development of the area like James and Theresea Graham, Eugene Gay and Michael Roche.

Kearns' “celebrity” part of the tour covers folk like Ray Flaherty and Everett Lamar Bridges, known as Rocky Bridges, both of whom are professional athletes who were not born here, but like many of the other entombed, came here and decided to stay.

As the Fourth of July approaches, tour attendees Randy and Cecilia Sweet thought it was important to learn about the area more. 

“With the 250th coming up, history is so important,” Randy said. 

“Cemeteries capture the history of a city,” Cecilia said. 

MONI runs tours through the St. Thomas Cemetery every Thursday afternoon and also runs tours through Forest Cemetery on Friday nights. 

Both are available to book until August and are led by MONI volunteers like Kearns.

For more information about MONI or cemetery tours, visit the MONI website.

    From left: Hunter Kearns tells Cecilia and Randy Sweet, Garet Traylor, Sue Blais and Amy Traylor the story of Matthew Hayden while in front of his grave marker.