HINSDALE COUNTY CEMETERIES COLORADO
The cemeteries of Lake City and the surrounding area tell many stories of life and death in the early days of these mining and ranching communities. It seems that few people of the era died of old age and the number of infant deaths is amazing. The first recorded death in Lake City was in 1876 and the burial site is unknown. The City Fathers at that point decided a suitable area for a cemetery should be located. A committee was chosen and they located a site north of town. The City Cemetery was started on several acres of a hilly pine covered mountain side close to town. The land was never publicly owned and passed thru several private owners until 1985 when it was officially acquired from the Carl White estate by Hinsdale County.
There was never any formal organization or records for the City Cemetery and burials took place on a haphazard basis. The vast majority of the graves are unmarked although it seems a pattern emerged where people of like life styles were placed together. For example in the area where Betts and Browning, the killers of Sheriff Campbell, were buried a section emerged where Bluff Street prostitutes and gamblers were laid to rest. “Paupers Row” was a long line of unmarked side by side graves established along the entire fence row to the left of the main entrance. Black residents had their own small area near “Paupers Row”. Immigrants made up a large portion of the City Cemetery internments and along with Catholics and Italians they all had their identifiable sections.
City Cemetery over the years became overgrown and not well cared for until a Cemetery Board was formed in recent times. They have done a remarkable job of restoration with a beautiful new fence and new markers installed on the graves where possible.
In 1877 the Silver Star Lodge No. 27, International Order of Odd Fellows {IOOF} decided to create their own cemetery for their members and their families. In the early years burial in the IOOF cemetery was quiet restrictive. In 1900 rules were loosened to allow other fraternities and sororities to purchase burial plots. In later years when the Odd Fellows Lodge was dissolved Hinsdale County took over the IOOF cemetery and it is open to the public and now is the primary cemetery for Lake City residents.
Unlike City Cemetery the IOOF is extremely well laid out and recent record are very well kept and protected. Most markers in IOOF are costly and permanent where City Cemetery’s markers are wooden. Although some markers in IOOF are of lesser quality such as one that is a painted rock. The cemetery board is presently buying and installing markers wherever it is possible to determine the occupants of each grave site.
Packer Victims Cemetery is located on the old Vickers ranch on property owned by the Jarmon family of Oklahoma. This cemetery contains the remains of the five victims of the “Packer Massacre” in 1874. These bodies were buried in a shallow mass grave in 1874. In 1989 the bodies were removed from the shallow grave to be examined to determine the exact cause of death. After the examination they were placed in a single coffin with each body having its own compartment. They were reburied at the same site 10 feet deep with a steel plate over the coffin to insure they will never be disturbed again.
Capitol City Cemetery is located 10 miles up Henson Creek road in the old ghost town of Capitol City. The cemetery sits on a hillside in what has to be the most beautiful setting for a final resting place you will ever find. All the grave markers had been remove by vandals many years ago and this grave yard sat totally abandoned until the Forest Service and a service group did all they possibly could to restore and remark the grave sites about 10 years ago. Very few records exist concerning the folks buried here and most of our local historians feel there are many more graves here than we are aware of.
There are many burial places in Hinsdale County with one or two sometimes five or six graves. Many people are buried in unmarked graves and totally forgotten. Life was hard in the early settlement of these mountains
One of the most interesting books you can read is CEMETERIES OF HINSDALE COUNTY, COLORADO by Grant Houston, our most knowledgeable historian.