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Friday, April 4, 9 a.m. @ Elmwood Cemetery, Section 2, Lot 22

The 1887 World Champion Detroit Wolverines. Sam Thompson is the tall one in the center row, fifth from left. From the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.

Start your Opening Day at Elmwood Cemetery! Pay respects to a great, say a prayer for the Tigers and have some coffee and donuts provided by the Historic Elmwood Foundation. The free event begins at 9 a.m. and lasts until we run out of coffee. You'll find a map to Sam Thompson's gravesite at the bottom of this post. Just meet us there! 

Who was "Big Sam"?

Samuel "Big Sam" Thompson was born in Danville, Ind., in 1860, the fifth of six brothers who all played baseball for their local team, the Danville Browns. A carpenter by trade, Sam was working on a roof in Danville when a scout from Evansville came to watch the Thompson brothers play. The scout had to pay Sam the $2.50 he would have earned for the roofing job. Sam joined Evansville in 1884 and later played for an Indianapolis team in the Western League. When the league disbanded in mid-June 1885, the Detroit Wolverines of the National League picked him up.

Big Sam — he stood 6'2" — and a roster of other power players won the Wolverines the World Series in 1887. When the team fell apart the following year, Sam went to Philadelphia, where he played until his retirement in 1898.

During Sam's career, he led the National League in nearly every hitting category. He was the first Major League player to amass 200+ hits and 300+ bases in one season. His career RBI to games played ratio remains the highest in baseball history at .923. And Thompson still holds the Major League record for most RBIs in a single month, driving in 61 runs in August 1894 while playing for the Phillies.

Sam lived in Detroit for the rest of his life — he even came out of retirement to play for the Detroit Tigers for a brief stint in 1906. On Opening Day at Bennett Park, it was tradition for legendary Wolverines catcher (and ballpark namesake) Charlie Bennett to throw out the opening pitch – to Big Sam.

When Sam died in 1922, "the town of Detroit came to a stop," wrote his great-nephew Don Thompson for the Society for American Baseball Research. "Courts, businesses, and factories stopped working while the ceremony and parade of his casket went to Elmwood Cemetery."

Big Sam was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. In 2000, a group of Thompson's relatives dedicated a new memorial at his gravesite.

Sam Thompson is buried in Section 2, Lot 22, next to his wife Ida, a local celebrity in her own right; until her death in 1947, at the age of 79, she never missed an Opening Day.

More about the event

To celebrate Sam Thompson's legacy and to petition the heavens for a great season of Detroit baseball, the Historic Elmwood Foundation will serve coffee and donuts by his grave on Opening Day, Friday, April 4, at 9 a.m. This informal gathering will last for an hour or so, or until we run out of coffee. We welcome you to leave a flower or memorial token on Sam and Ida's lot.

See map below to help you find us at the cemetery. Elmwood Cemetery is located at 1200 Elmwood Ave. in Detroit, at the northeast corner of Lafeyette and McDougall. Our driveway just north of Calvary Baptist Church, the "big orange church" on the corner at 1000 Robert Bradby Dr. Section 2 is on the north side of the cemetery.  

Registration is optional but gives us an idea of how many donuts to bring; sign up here. Questions? Drop a line to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Explore Elmwood Cemetery in style this season – on board a beautifully restored vintage trolley! 

We’re proud to partner with the amazing crew at Grand Trolley to offer a comfortable two-hour trolley tour of our 86-acre historic rural cemetery, led by an expert guide. With optional hop-off stops, we’ll talk about Elmwood’s notable and famous residents – as well as a few unsung heroes – and learn about the cemetery’s distinctive landscape, monuments, and natural features.  

Tours are $20 and include light refreshments. Max capacity of 24 people – we expect these tours to sell out quickly! 

Sign up here: 

• Thursday, May 22 @ 11 a.m. 
• Sunday, June 8 @ 10 a.m.
• More trolley tours to come this summer – make sure you’re signed up for our emails to be notified when new tours are added to the calendar!

Questions? Drop us a line: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

This bur oak is the oldest tree in the Elmwood Arboretum.

Join Elmwood Cemetery and Arboretum and the Historic Elmwood Foundation for a celebration of Detroit trees on Arbor Day, Friday, April 26, 2024 at 1:30 p.m.

The public is invited to join Elmwood Cemetery staff and students from Martin Luther King Jr. High School for an educational walk through the Arboretum. Along the way, we’ll talk about notable tree specimens on the grounds and discuss the importance of trees for supporting wildlife and healthy communities and what climate change could mean for our tree canopy.

The walk will conclude with a celebratory planting of a tree selected by King High School students. 

Elmwood Cemetery is Detroit’s first certified Arboretum. Its historic grounds are wooded with over 1,300 trees, representing close to 100 species, including several varieties of oaks, elms, walnuts, maples, cypresses, yews, locusts and a wide array of flowering trees. The cemetery was certified a Level I Arboretum by the Morton Arboretum and ArbNet in 2015.

"The age of Elmwood's tree population is part of what makes the Arboretum so special – many of our trees are over 100 years old," said Michael Shukwit, Director of Operations at Elmwood Cemetery. "That's also why reforestation efforts are paramount to the future of the Arboretum and the communities around the cemetery – especially as we experience more intense weather year-round as a result of global climate change." 

"King High School is a proud member of the community and excited to embark on a special project with Elmwood Cemetery," said Jennifer Boyle, teacher at King High School. "This collaboration presents a unique opportunity for our students to engage with local history and heritage in a meaningful way." 

Register here or call 313-567-3453 for more information.

About Elmwood Cemetery and the Historic Elmwood Foundation  

Elmwood Cemetery, established in 1846, is one of Detroit and Michigan’s most significant sites of history, culture and landscape. Designed and maintained in the spirit of the rural cemetery movement, Elmwood sits on 86 acres of rolling hills, majestic trees and a historic waterway, all in the heart of the city, just two miles from downtown Detroit. 

Elmwood remains an active cemetery and is operated as a nonprofit, with a mission to provide accessible, personal and compassionate burial services to the community. The cemetery’s mission and history is supported by the Historic Elmwood Foundation, established in 2005. The foundation works to preserve the history and educational significance of the cemetery and to develop social, cultural, and environmental public programs that benefit the community. 

About Arbor Day 

The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska on April 10, 1872. Since then, the holiday has spread to all 50 states and across the world. Known as the tree planter’s holiday, Arbor Day is a day for people to come together in recognition of the wonders of trees. Communities, schools, businesses, and individuals alike join together to plant commemorative trees, hand out free trees, provide education on tree planting and care, and celebrate all the benefits trees provide.

National Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April. Learn more at arborday.org.