Is Brigham Young’s Hearse Residing in Disneyland?

I recently went to Disneyland for the first time since middle school, and in the week leading up to my visit I obsessively consumed as much useless trivia about the park and its history as I could find. Being the boring adult that I am, if I’m going to commit to a day in a theme park, I better know some of its back story.

So of course I read the story about how the ghostly horseless hearse parked in front of The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland is the same vehicle that carried the body of Brigham Young to his grave. The Haunted Mansion was always one of my favorite rides, but I’d never known about this. It sounded like a great story, and brought a weird part of my own heritage to a place of universal acclaim.

Of course, it’s not true. Young was very specific about his funeral plans, which included being carried on a platform to his funeral, and then in his casket to the cemetery. No hearse, no horses, living or apparitions.

But the rumor persisted, at least until the Deseret News had to do some journalism and ruin the fun. And why not? Brigham Young, as the prophet of the uniquely American Mormon church, persists as a kind of westward expansion mystic. He managed to lead an entire people across the plains to settle in a strange, unfriendly valley, where he established a theocracy and practiced polygamy. Think about it; what other real life figure from western American history is so suited to participate in the most famous haunted house in the world?

It’s hard to find the original source of the rumor, but I wouldn’t put it past Disney to have started it themselves, and for exactly that reason. Brigham Young is revered enough to balance his controversies, yet his context is strange enough to maintain a mystery.

Nobody knows who really did take a final ride in the hearse. Some say it did, in fact, originate from Salt Lake City, so maybe it once belonged to some other apostle or towering figure in Mormon history? Maybe the rumor missed the mark by just a decade, and it was actually John Taylor’s hearse that now decorates a Disneyland ride?

It’s too bad it’s not true. But there is still one more weird Mormon connection The Haunted Mansion. The Osmonds were among the rides very first patrons. Back when they used to hang out with Kurt Russell.

Now that’s spooky.