Is Anyone Allowed To Have A Picnic In A Montana Cemetery?

Do you ever think, "Wow, a cemetery! What a great place to have a picnic!"

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Maybe you do, maybe you don't. It's a peaceful quiet place and one can celebrate life and possibly have a but of food as well.

At different times and parts of the county this has been a thing people did to just eat and go hang out with dearly departed ancestors.

According to Atlas Obscura on remembering when American picnicked in cemeteries,  during the later nineteenth century it was quite popular across the country.

Since many municipalities still lacked proper recreational areas, many people had full-blown picnics in their local cemeteries. The tombstone-laden fields were the closest things, then, to modern-day public parks.

If you hit their website, you can see some interesting picture from the past.

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Food & Wine has some pointers on how to respectively have a bite at the cemetery if your interested in learning the etiquette.

However, do cemeteries in Montana allow such things to happen?

I looked at different rules in different Montana places, On cemetery says they do not allow any such things to happen on their grounds.

There are no laws on book in Montana to prohibit picnics in cemeteries, so I decided to call a local cemetery to get there thought and perspective on the matter.

Talking with a person there, he as telling me that a question like that was never presented before. He continued to say that he would have to consult with the landowner on whether it would be permissible.

In reality, he would have to side with other cemeteries in the same policy of prohibiting picnics on account of things potentially getting out of hand with tables, people, and the activities that can involve a picnic like tossing a football or Frisbee. Things could get disrespectful fast without people intending to do, so like trampling grave sites and making noise.

It may seem like a good idea and a good gesture in memoriam to dear old Memaw, but you might want to ask before heading in for a feast.