Some cities are chalked full of history from location to historical landmarks, but have you ever thought about its rich history through the lens of a cemetery headstone?

Siskiyou Historic Tours has been around for over a decade and its founders, Deborah Wilson and Linda Freeman, lead tours across the county, teaching people the vast history of a city through its cemeteries.

“In this day and age I understand why cremation is very popular and why people aren’t doing formal burials anymore because of the expense, but you know there’s a story for everybody, everybody has a story and I wish we had the time to tell everybody’s story,” said Deborah Wilson, Co-Founder.

According to Wilson, the last tour they conducted at Winema Cemetery was to highlight the men and women who served in the military, but this time they wanted to talk about who helped build the city.

“Now it’s time to talk about some of the other people here that developed this town. I want to show the diversity of the different ethnic groups that are in this town, and they had to be a community that worked together,” Wilson said.

The city has another historical factor that most do not discuss; the tunnels that ran from the southside to the northside.

According to Wilson, they were built around the same time as the city was being established and it was to help the minorities travel across town.

“I believe that for the Chinese especially, it was a way that they could travel without any harassment to go and get their supplies,” Wilson said.