Beneath the shaded, rolling expanses of an 82-acre lot not far from campus, are many of the reasons MSU exists as the institution it is today.
There, under oak and cedar trees, beneath aging obelisks and ornate headstones, lie some of the men whose names we base our daily lives around - usually without even realizing it.
Frederick Cowles Jenison, for whom Jenison Field House was named, is there. So are Theophilus Abbot, Robert Kedzie, and Jonathan Snyder, all men who had a hand in shaping MSU and whose names live on through some of campus' most prominent buildings.
These people and many more have been laid to rest at Lansing's Mount Hope Cemetery and Craig Whitford thinks you should care.
"These are not just names on tombstones," said Whitford, president of the Historical Society of Greater Lansing. "These are people who built the college and built the area we live in."
On Sept. 12, the historical society will host "Ghost Walk 2004," a guided tour through the cemetery on the corner of Mount Hope Road and Aurelius Road. The tour will highlight more than 20 of the cemetery's most notable residents and their life stories.
For Whitford, it's information every good, green-and-white bleeding resident of the area should be up on.
"This is all about bringing history to life, learning much more about those people and what else they did in their lifetime" he said. "It's pretty interesting to see where individuals are buried."
The resting places of MSU's presidents and professors of yesteryear are not the only things students may find interesting at the 130-year-old graveyard.
On a hill just past the entrance stands the stately stone mausoleum of Ransom E. Olds, founder of Oldsmobile. Complete with a tree-lined stairway leading to its only entrance proves to be the cemetery's most grandiose monument.
There is also the grave of Luther B. Baker, who had a hand in capturing and killing Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth.
Even a man who Whitford said once shot up Lansing's Capitol National Bank, killing one, has a plot at Mount Hope.
During the past 15 years, these spots and more have drawn varying amounts of people to the Ghost Walk. Last year more than 200 toured the cemetery, though numbers have dwindled to about 30 in other years.
Whitford said he's recently seen an increase in student interest.
"It ranges from early teens to people all the way up in their 80s that attend the walks," he said. "I've noticed that it seems like this generation of college students have more awareness of their history than in that past.
"They just seem to be more present."
For most, the abbreviated afternoon walk provides all the information they care to know about the lives and deaths of those beneath the soil. There are some, however, who delve much deeper into cemeteries and their residents.
According to Carol Abbot, supervisor of cemetery administration for the City of Lansing, several people come into the city's cemetery office each week hoping to unearth the records of loved ones.
"There's a huge interest in people researching their family histories," she said. "It's a trend in all cemeteries."
Abbot added that searches for family history can be complex and time consuming.
"Eventually, it would be wonderful if we had the complete records online for the convenience of people looking," she said. "Right now, I think that's out of the cost range of most cemeteries."
While many graveyards may not provide online records, people such as Jan Cortez do.
Cortez stumbled on an interest in genealogy while trying to gain admittance to the Daughters of the American Revolution, Mecosta Chapter in Big Rapids. The organization requires that its members prove lineal descent from a "patriot of the American Revolution."
Through extensive research, Cortez was able to trace her genealogy and prove she was eligible for membership.
"Let's put it this way, I was hooked," wrote Cortez in an e-mail response.
She started digging up more and more details about her family tree and the hobby snowballed into something larger.
"Searching for ancestors takes you to birth and death certificates and then the natural progress of wanting to visit graves," Cortez wrote. "Once you really get into the cemeteries, you begin to see the condition of the stones. They are crumbling and broken. Maybe I can find an ancestor today, but what about generations to come?"
With that concern in mind, Cortez began the Michigan Tombstone Transcription Project, an offshoot of a national project begun by a genealogical organization called USGenWeb.
Project participants send transcriptions and photographs of headstones to Cortez. She estimated that thousands of genealogists throughout Michigan contribute to the effort.
Cortez said she takes comfort in the possibility that her work might help others.
"Many people will never be able to visit the areas that their ancestors lived in, nor can they afford to pay for copies of birth, death, and marriage certificates or the cost of having someone else do the research for them," she wrote. "This is about preserving and remembering our loved ones."
