Cemetery crew ready for Halloween's unruly spirits

SALT LAKE CITY — It's Halloween, and Mark Smith will sleep with one eye open tonight.

That is, if he sleeps at all.

Mark is sexton of the Salt Lake City Cemetery, where he has 120,000 graves to look after. He's got nothing against Halloween personally. It's just that the holiday tends to attract additional attention to the place he oversees.

"I'd be lying to you, and so would anybody who works for a cemetery, if I told you I won't be glad when it's over," says Mark. "I like the day after Halloween."

The cemetery staff won't go home tonight at dusk like they usually do. They'll stay on till dawn. Mark will have his beeper on high.

Halloween is the only night of the year the graveyard has a graveyard shift.

"We will have staff on duty tonight patrolling," Mark affirms. "The police will also have their patrols and we have a terrific neighborhood watch up here. There will be a number of people in the cemetery driving around, keeping an eye on things."

So yes, if you venture into the graveyard tonight, you will feel a presence.

That touch on the shoulder will be an actual touch on the shoulder.

"My take on Halloween is I just hope no one does anything that will destroy anything that will provide heartbreak for anyone's family," Mark says. "A lot of times, people will do something (on Halloween night) that they think is all in good fun, it's just a prank, and then the family comes the next day and sees a headstone tipped over or covered in Hershey's chocolate syrup or sprayed with paintball, and that's hard. Seeing that someone has desecrated their loved one's grave, that sticks with them forever.

"I just want everyone to show the same respect they'd want to see for their own loved ones. That's how I look at Halloween. I'm entrusted in caring for people's loved ones that are buried here and we need to make sure we take that seriously."

Having said all that, however, Mark, who has been sexton for the past nine years and working at the cemetery for 13 years, says he's optimistic that all his worries will prove to be unfounded.

"You know what, we really haven't had any issues for quite a few years," he says. "There hasn't been that much vandalism or mischief. We've been very fortunate."

And the vandalism or mischief that has happened? What about that? What's the craziest thing he's seen on All Hallows' Eve?