{"id":315,"slug":"memory-gardens-cemetery-valley-city-north-dakota","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The cemetery is the gardened — the '1956' that's the founding's year, the 'memorial park' that's the design's type. The 'flat markers' is the laid — the 'grass' that's the lawn's form, the 'no upright' that's the rule's form. The 'Valley City' is the served — the 'Barnes County' that's the county's name, the '2,700' that's the memorials' count.","The 'garden' is the planned — the 'mid-century' that's the style's era, the 'park' that's the landscape's model. The 'incorporated' is the run — the 'of Valley City' that's the company's name, the 'markers' that's the business's trade. The cemetery is the kept — the 'modern' that's the cemetery's kind, the 'rows' that's the graves' form.","The file keeps the cemetery: the gardened design, the laid markers, the served county, and the kept lawn.","Memory Gardens is the archive's North Dakota file — the cemetery that flattened its stones."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Memory Gardens is the archive's North Dakota file — the mid-century answer to the graveyard.","A cemetery keeps its lawn — the file's suggestion being that the site's hold is the modern: the 'garden' that's the design's name, the 'flat' that's the marker's form, and the '1956' that's the era's date."]}],"name":"Memory Gardens Cemetery","aliases":[],"type":"CEMETERY","type_label":"Cemetery","cats":["HAUNTING"],"groups":["cemeteries","hauntings"],"desc":"Cemetery associated with documented cultural history.","full_desc":"A cemetery in Valley City, North Dakota, Memory Gardens Cemetery is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Cemetery associated with documented cultural history. Its signature presence is Blue Boy — the figure the file’s accounts keep returning to. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 legend, every one filed as account rather than fact. Visitor status is unverified; confirm before making the trip.","address":null,"city":"Valley City","county":null,"state":"North Dakota","postal":null,"region":"Midwest","lat":46.922573,"lon":-98.004137,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Source places cemetery east of Valley City. Exact parcel, ownership and visitation hours need confirmation; same-name cemeteries elsewhere excluded.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"LOW","score":43.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":242,"type":"UNEXPLAINED_LIGHTS","description":"A floating light is locally known as the Blue Boy. A cemetery in Valley City, North Dakota accumulating ghost reports is almost tautological — but this is the one the record kept. It circulates as local folklore — the kind communities keep rather than verify. 'Ghost Story' carries the account. The lights keep their own schedule; nobody has produced a better explanation.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":"Blue Boy","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.7,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Ghost Story","url":"https://news.prairiepublic.org/show/dakota-datebook-archive/2022-04-25/ghost-story","publisher":"Prairie Public","type":"LOCAL_JOURNALISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"A floating light is locally known as the Blue Boy. Memory Gardens Cemetery's dead are the site's permanent residents; the reports are how the living say they keep noticing. It circulates as local folklore — the kind communities keep rather than verify. Sources including 'Ghost Story' keep the claim in circulation. The story outranks the documentation, which is how you know it's folklore.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Ghost Story","url":"https://news.prairiepublic.org/show/dakota-datebook-archive/2022-04-25/ghost-story","publisher":"Prairie Public","type":"LOCAL_JOURNALISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[{"name":"Blue Boy","claimed_identity":"Blue Boy","verified":null,"summary":"A floating light is locally known as the Blue Boy. The burial ground at Valley City is exactly the setting the account needs — old graves, older grief, and a story that won't settle. The report is preserved in sources like 'Ghost Story'. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease.","behavior":"A floating light is locally known as the Blue Boy.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Ghost Story","url":"https://news.prairiepublic.org/show/dakota-datebook-archive/2022-04-25/ghost-story","publisher":"Prairie Public","type":"LOCAL_JOURNALISM","authority":3}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Ghost Story","url":"https://news.prairiepublic.org/show/dakota-datebook-archive/2022-04-25/ghost-story","publisher":"Prairie Public","type":"LOCAL_JOURNALISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":0,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}