Each year, the Park City Museum hosts an annual membership party and fundraiser for all its members. Since our beginnings, this party has taken place in the late fall, always falling near Halloween, and rarely after.
The party started off in typical fashion as a way for the Museum to show appreciation for its members. It took place at the Museum, with the added novelty of being hosted inside our original 1885 Territorial Jail, colloquially and internally referred to as “the Dungeon.” Henceforth, the party has been called the Dungeon Party.
Over the years, the party has featured food and drink, games, candy, live music, fall décor, socializing, and a variety of Museum tours. Parties often, but not always, featured staff, volunteers, and Board members dressed up in costumes – usually historical Parkites – to entertain guests. Despite the Christmas foreshadowing, the party also often hosted the debut of our annual ornament, ready for members to have first pick. One party in 2006 did follow a more winter holiday theme – that party took place late, however, on November 17.
The first party in 1984 was a thank you to all the people who had brought the Museum to life that year. Later, the 2000s saw the introduction of a silent auction, featuring baskets, treats, deals, and more from local businesses, as well as art pieces, antiques, and other items. Two parties, 2007 and 2008, acted as major fundraisers for the Museum’s expansion. The 2009 party then allowed our members exclusive access to the nearly-ready-for-opening new space.
After that big event, the party shifted to be more explicitly a Halloween party. The 2010 event offered ghost tours of the Museum for the first time. That party also marked the first of several parties that were hosted at the Elks Club two doors down with tours offered over at the Museum.
Credit: Park City Historical Society & Museum and Jon Scarlet
For most of the 2010s, the party was a Halloween extravaganza, with everyone coming to the party in costume (if so inclined). The games featured Halloween twists, the fall and Halloween décor dominated the party space, and the best costumes garnered laughter, gasps, and exclamations.
Certain years, the Museum tours offered ghost stories and candlelight tours of the dark and spooky jail. Other years, some characters from Park City’s past arrived as ghosts to tell their own stories, similar to our annual Glenwood event but able to feature Parkites not specifically buried there.
The Dungeon Party in recent years has moved away from the dungeon itself, but has retained the Halloween flair, with guests encouraged to arrive in costume and the décor set with autumn and Halloween hallmarks and colors.
To attend the Dungeon party, one must be a Museum member or an invited guest of a member. Memberships for the Museum may be purchased at the Museum desk, at parkcityhistory.org, or over the phone with Executive Director Morgan Pierce (435-216-9787). Members attending the party are encouraged to give feedback for how to keep the party and Halloween spirit alive.
Happy Halloween from the Park City Museum!