Volunteer
Friends of the Salt Lake City CemeteryWe have several opportunities throughout the year to join us in opportunities to support our cemetery, enjoy the green space, meet your neighbors, and contribute to the community.
Get Involved
Join Us At Any Event!
POST MEMORIAL DAY CLEAN UP
Wed, Thur, and Sat,
JUNE 3, 4, and 6, 2026
Thanks to all who joined the Friends of the Salt Lake City Cemetery at our annual Post Memorial Day Clean up.
Each year, in observance of Memorial Day, visitors to the Salt Lake City Cemetery place potted plants, flowers, and other memorabilia around the graves of their loved ones. Once the flowers and plants have died, they need to be removed. Over 200 volunteers helped pickup and separate out recyclable materials. In previous years, we have diverted between 8 and 10 tons of recyclables and compostable waste from the landfill.
This was a great opportunity to support our cemetery, enjoy the green space, meet neighbors, and contribute to the community.
FALL TREE PLANTING
Saturday November 14 2026
The Friends of the Cemetery will host another volunteer tree-planting event on Saturday, 14 November. Please join us in this opportunity to support the Cemetery, enjoy the green space, meet your neighbors and contribute to the community. We’ll meet at 9 AM at the Sexton’s House on the corner of 4th Avenue and N Street at 9 AM. We’ll plan to be finished by noon. All tools will be provided. Please bring gloves and wear sturdy shoes. Keep an eye on the weather and dress appropriately.
Please click here to sign up, so that we’ll know how many trees we can plant.
We hope to see you there!
In September of 2020, a huge windstorm blew through Salt Lake City and knocked down over 270 trees in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. The Cemetery was closed for over 6 months while staff determined the damage and mitigated potentially unsafe conditions from the fallen trees. In November of 2021, the Cemetery received accreditation as an Arboretum, which was named the Mark Smith Memorial Arboretum, after the long-time Sexton who died in 2019.
Since that time, volunteers have replanted over 300 trees. These efforts have been led by the Friends of the Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City’s Urban Forestry Department. These trees include many different species which help contribute to the overall diversity and health of the Arboretum and the Cemetery’s forest. While these trees cannot match the size and scope of the ones that were lost, they will make a difference in the future.
Although we have replaced the trees lost in the windstorm, there are more opportunities.
Fund Raising
The Friends of the Salt Lake City Cemetery was formed in 2021 as a 501c3 charitable organization that has supported raising funds and encouraging appropriations which have led to some significant restorations of aging infrastructure. In addition to advocacy, as an organization we have helped to organize tree planting projects, annual cemetery cleanups following Memorial Day and working with other groups to help maintain and improve the cemetery. We would love your help with these future opportunities.
We invite your help in making a charitable contribution that will assist us in the efforts mentioned above as well as helping us to raise funds for a required study to nominate the cemetery to the National Register of Historical Places. Your contribution of $50, $100 or $250 will help us continue this work and in the future help us as we look to providing public amenities and wayfinding materials for visitors to the cemetery. Please click on the donations button above to go to our secure donations page.
Our Board’s efforts are purely as volunteers with minimal administrative costs, so your contribution will go further in helping us to support the cemetery masterplan and work to improve this great community asset of culture, open space and peace.
Next Steps
Lots of Ways to Get Involved.
Contact Us
Utah Cemetery Burial Database
Connect
Volunteer
Groups
Names In Stone Burial Records
Donate
Map
Call or Email Cemetery
About Us
The main goals of the Friends group are to advocate for the cemetery, to engage the public in its history and upkeep, and to help identify and secure funding sources to address some of the needs in the Cemetery’s Master Plan, which was adopted by the City Council in October 2020.
Join the cause
The Friends group works closely with the City’s Public Lands division to identify a number of future volunteer activities to ensure the longevity of this local and national treasure. If you are interested in learning more about the Friends group, or if you have specific expertise that you feel could benefit the Friends group, please complete the form below
A Non-Profit Group
Friends Of The Salt Lake City Cemetery was formed as a non-profit 501c3 organization to help Salt Lake City with managing the largest municipal cemetery in the United States. The cemetery dates back to the mid-1800's when 120 acres were set aside as a permanent city cemetery. The first burial was September 27, 1848.