After 18 years, ‘Saints and Sinners Tour’ at Oakwood Cemetery canceled. Why?
Some of Fort Worth’s most famous historical figures will not be returning to the land of the living this fall.
The annual “Saints and Sinners Tour” at Oakwood Cemetery, a tradition nearly two decades, has been canceled.
Since the late 2000s, the North Fort Worth Historical Society has put on the tour around Halloween. Volunteers dress up as some of the city’s founding fathers — and a few notorious “sinners” — who are buried in the 146-year-old cemetery northeast of downtown.
The actors tells the stories of the deceased, including cattleman and 6666 ranch owner Samuel Burk Burnett, and the city’s first Black policeman, Hagar Tucker.
This year’s 18th annual event was slated for Oct. 25-26. The ticketed tour is the biggest fundraiser for the historical society, which has worked since 1976 to preserve the Fort Worth Stockyards. The group also runs the Stockyards Museum.
But this week, the historical society announced the bad news on Facebook.
The dead will stay dead this year. Whether it remains an eternal rest, though, remains to be seen.
What’s special about Fort Worth’s Oakwood Cemetery?
Oakwood is not Fort Worth’s oldest cemetery, but it’s close.
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Pioneers Rest on Samuels Avenue was established in 1850, a year after Fort Worth was founded by Major Ripley Arnold.
Oakwood Cemetery came about in 1879 when pioneer and future Fort Worth mayor John Peter Smith donated 20 acres upon the death of his stepson, Frank L. Fox. The land overlooks the Trinity River.
What was originally called the “New Cemetery” was renamed to Oakwood in 1885.
Today, Oakwood Cemetery is over 100 acres and includes sections that were once reserved for Black people (Old Trinity) and Catholics (Calvary). Other notable graves are Horace S. Carswell Jr., the Army major killed in World War II; Jim “Longhaired Jim” Courtright, a lawman and scoundrel killed in a gunfight outside the White Elephant Saloon; and Texas Gov. Charles Allen Culberson.
Like the historical society, the cemetery is a nonprofit organization. It, too, benefited from the money raised by the “Saints and Sinners” tours.
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Why is the ‘Saints and Sinners Tour’ at Oakwood Cemetery canceled?
Teresa Burleson is the director of the Stockyards Museum, run by the historical society.
She told the Star-Telegram on Wednesday that the annual tour was canceled this year due to the age and medical conditions of their older volunteers.
Organizers say they need more volunteers if the tour will ever continue.
Sarah Biles, the Oakwood Cemetery office manager, said they usually have people willing to portray the ghost characters.
“This year, it just wasn’t that way,” Biles said.
Many of the volunteers have been with the tour since it started nearly 20 years ago and, as Biles puts it, they weren’t exactly “spring chickens then.”
Burleson said that the historical society is planning to regroup and figure out what to do for next year.
“We’ll get by,” she said about the loss of the fundraiser.
Will the ‘Saints and Sinners Tour’ return in 2026?
The need going forward is for more volunteers to help, whether that be in prepping the cemetery or serving as actors, Biles said. You don’t have to have gray hair — given the healthcare of their time, some of the figures portrayed in the tour died at a young age. That could open up an opportunity for youthful actors.
In addition to actors, guides are needed to run the tour and share historical facts about the deceased.
“It would take some training to run in some new ones, but we can do it,” Biles said.
As much as both parties appreciated the funding the tour generated, Biles said the publicity it would bring every year was significant. She recalls getting calls from folks asking if they could buy plots in the historic cemetery.
Biles has already fielded calls from people asking about this year’s tour, and it was “tough” to break the news. However, she said maybe when folks see that the tour is not happening, that will spur them to participate.
“That’s a good thought,” Biles said. “It’ll shake some people up.”
For those looking to get involved, Burleson said anyone can join the historical society.
The group meets on the second Thursday of every month at the Stockyards Museum, 131 E. Exchange Ave., suite 113. For more information and the latest updates, Burleson said folks should stay tuned to the group’s events page at stockyardsmuseum.org.
This story was originally published September 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM.
