The Northfield Historical Society has just wrapped up its second annual presentation of Cemetery Stories - an event that honors local history and the dearly departed while providing its audience an educational and entertaining experience.

Prominent historic characters, or representative citizens of a bygone era, are researched, scripted, costumed and brought to life by volunteer citizen actors. The Northfield Historical Society first offered this October event in 2005 during Northfield's Sesquicentennial celebration. That event featured local notables including Joseph Lee Heywood (murdered during an attempted bank robbery in 1876 by the James-Younger Gang) and John North (founder of Northfield). It was a huge success with more than 150 people attending.

This October, the Historical Society fine-tuned what was a great event and under a full moon and a warm, windy evening once again brought history to life, this time for more than 300 attendees. They selected a different cemetery, scaled down the characters represented from 15 to 7 and engaged 7th and 8th grade students to do the research.

This year's notable Northfielders included Thorbjorn Mohn (first president of St. Olaf College), George Huntington (author and first editor of the Northfield News) and Henry Wheeler (a medical student and one of the citizen marksmen that brought down the James-Younger Gang).

This fun and engaging activity for the whole family provides a unique opportunity for citizens to learn more about the history of their community and the opportunity to confidently wander through a cemetery late at night under a full moon.