For Bayfield Electric Cooperative Board Member Jim Kinzie, his role as caretaker of Cable’s cemeteries has never been just about digging graves or maintaining grounds. For him, the role is about remembering the past and making sure no one is forgotten.
For nearly 40 years, Kinzie has cared for the Cable Greenwood Cemetery and St. Anne’s Cemetery.
“It isn’t just a job,” Kinzie said. “The word ‘caretaker’ says it all. You take care of the loved ones of a community.”
The role began unexpectedly in the mid-1980s when then-caretaker Clarence Holly, already in his 80s, asked for help.
“Clarence asked me if I would start digging the graves for him, and he’d fill them in because it was getting a little hard for him to dig the graves at 83,” he said.
A few years later, Holly retired, and Kinzie took over the entire job.
“When you’re always there at funerals, people talk to you,” he said. “They tell you who the person was, and you start hearing stories about the people that are in the cemetery.”
Those stories accumulated year after year.
“Over time, I got quite a collection of who’s who in the cemetery,” said Kinzie.
What started as conversations with grieving families eventually became one of the Cable area’s most unique traditions.
The Cemetery Walk
Kinzie remembers answering a visitor’s questions one day while working among the headstones.
“She said, ‘You ought to do something like this for the historical society.’”
The idea intrigued him, and after thinking about it for a couple of years, they set up the first cemetery walk in the Greenwood Cemetery.
Karen Gran, a Bayfield Electric Cooperative member and board member with the Cable/Namakagon Historical Museum, knows the walk predates her service with the organization, which began in 2012.
“I think it’s increased pretty much every year since I’ve been participating in this,” Gran said.
The appeal, she said, starts with Kinzie himself.
“If you’re a local, you know Jim Kinzie. And you know that he’s just a wonderful character, and it’s going to be entertaining.”
The Man in the Top Hat
Cemetery walk attendees quickly learn that Kinzie isn’t there to deliver a dry history lecture. He arrives in character.
“I always wear a top hat and a trench coat when I do it and usually walk around with a shovel,” he said.
The look has documented roots. Victorian-era gravediggers often wore top hats and long coats—easily recognized as cemetery workers.
“The old guy with a big, long trench coat and a top hat on, you kind of knew that was the gravedigger,” Kinzie said.
The costume sets the stage and prepares attendees for a history lesson, storytelling session, and theatrical performance all rolled into one.
Some years, descendants portray their actual ancestors buried in the cemetery. Other years include ghost stories or scavenger hunts.
Last year, Kinzie surprised attendees with a performance of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” delivered in the style of classic actor Peter Lorre.
“That was fantastic,” Gran said. “Jim just knocked it out of the park with that. Nobody was saying a word. Standing there with jaws dropped.”
“Jim is quite an actor,” she laughed. “It’s very theatrical.”
Hidden History
Part of the cemetery walk’s appeal is the sheer variety of information Kinzie shares.
“You’re gonna learn some history, you’ll learn some local history, you’ll learn some world history,” Kinzie said. “Hopefully you’ll have a little bit of fun.”
One of his favorite lessons involves grave orientation.
Most graves, he explained, are traditionally arranged east to west.
“Your head is lying in the west. And your feet are pointing east,” Kinzie said. “So that as the sun rises in the east, so will you stand up to meet the Son of God.”
Attendees also learn the origin of sayings such as “dead ringer,” stories about grave robbing, and forgotten burial traditions.
“I think we do a different kind of cemetery walk than a lot of places do,” Gran said. “He pulls out facts about the history of burials and graveyards, and it’s just really interesting. If I heard that same thing once every year, it wouldn’t be too much for me.”
Giving Faces to Names
One of the walk’s more meaningful goals is moving beyond names carved into stone. In past years, volunteers have portrayed historic individuals buried in the cemetery.
Gran participated twice, portraying her own great-grandmother, Dr. Kate Kelsey Clark.
A rare female physician in the early 1900s, “Doc Kelsey” settled in Cable to practice medicine. She eventually became one of the community’s best-known doctors.
“It puts a face, so to speak, to the name on the headstone,” Gran said. “It kind of brings it to life.”
Performing in first person let visitors engage directly with local history and let Gran answer questions as if she were her great-grandmother.
“Instead of just walking around looking at old headstones and stuff, when you can actually talk about a person… that was kind of fun.”
Lost Cemetery
Among the many stories Kinzie shares, perhaps none is more fascinating than his discovery of what appears to be Cable’s original cemetery.
“We had a lost cemetery,” he said. “A cemetery that had disappeared.”
The mystery began with stories from longtime residents who remembered graves being uncovered during construction decades earlier. One resident described discovering a coffin containing a woman with bright red hair. Later, Kinzie spoke with men who helped build a house on the property.
“I asked them, ‘Do you guys remember hitting a grave?’”
Their answer shocked him.
“They were like, ‘No, we hit a couple of graves. We think there’s a cemetery there.’”
Kinzie began researching historical records and eventually found an early plat map.
“It showed a cemetery right where the house was,” he said. “We ultimately were able to identify that there were at least 15 or more graves there. Why that cemetery got abandoned, we’ll never know.”
But for Kinzie, uncovering the truth was enough. “At least we now know it’s there.”
Remembering the Forgotten
Kinzie’s commitment to preserving history goes beyond the annual walk.
Over the years, he was troubled by the number of unmarked graves in the cemetery.
“There were so many unmarked graves, and we really didn’t know who they were,” he said.
Many belonged to families who, at the time, could not afford monuments.
When a veterans’ cemetery in Hayward replaced handmade concrete crosses with factory-made markers, Kinzie saw an opportunity for the discarded headstones.
“The Legion and I, we started marking all the unmarked graves in the cemetery.”
For Kinzie, every unmarked grave represented a person who should be remembered.
History and Community
Before the event, visitors browse the cemetery with scavenger-hunt sheets Kinzie designed. They search for historic markers, symbols, and names while learning to pay closer attention to the stories around them.
“It gets people out walking around and actually looking at the different headstones and the names and the history in there,” said Gran.
The museum also serves hot chocolate, hot cider, and Halloween treats, creating a welcoming atmosphere that attracts all ages.
“We get little kids, grandparents, we get all ages,” Gran said. “It’s just a fun October thing to do before Halloween.”
That sense of community is exactly what Kinzie and Gran hope people take away.
“The reason we do this is to keep history alive,” Gran said. “That’s our job.”
She hopes visitors leave inspired to learn more about their own families and communities.
“Maybe they go home and start looking through old photo albums,” she said. “Maybe asking their grandparents or their parents, ‘Do you remember this person?’”
Because history, she said, can disappear surprisingly fast.
“Yesterday is history,” said Gran.
And a caretaker in a top hat shares stories to make sure that history and those resting there are never forgotten.—Dana Kelroy
The Cable/Namakagon Historical Museum’s Cemetery Walk takes place at the Cable Greenwood Cemetery at 43270 Cable Sunset Rd, Cable, WI 54821 on October 17, 2026, at 4 p.m. For more information, call 715-798-5070. Photos courtesy of The Cable/Namakagon Historical Museum and Karen Gran.