Jul 12, 2023 - Things to Do

Des Moines launches pioneer women cemetery tours

Jason Clayworth

A photo of Calista Halsey from the late 1800s. — Calista Halsey Patchin was in the late 1800s one of the founders of the Des Moines Women's Club, a group that still works from Hoyt Sherman Place and started the museum's art gallery. Her tombstone at Woodland Cemetery is a stop on a new historical tour. Photo: Courtesy of the DSM Women's Club

A new walking tour at Woodland Cemetery focuses on the achievements of pioneer women.

Why it matters: Despite being influential in shaping the metro, their contributions are oftentimes forgotten, tour organizer Lorna Truck tells Axios.

Catch up fast: Truck, a retired DSM librarian, teamed up with metro history teacher Kat Rinken to launch the tours this spring.

Research took years in part because it's hard to find information about many of the women in local history archives, Truck says.

Zoom in: Tours take about two hours and include stops at around 15 monuments and headstones, including those of multiple suffragists.

Many of the women featured in the tour also lobbied for and financed community betterment groups or initiatives that started things like the city's first orphanage, a free public library and preschools.

Of note: In celebration of Woodland's 175th anniversary this fall, Truck is mapping the memorials or tombstones of dozens of other pioneer women for driving tours.

The cemetery already has QR codes on dozens of monuments that allow people to take self-guided video tours using their phones.

Details: The next "Notable Women of Early DSM" tour is July 21 at 9:30am.

Tickets: $10, with space limited to 35 people.

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Des Moines launches pioneer women cemetery tours

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