Ute Cemetery
Encyclopedia
Ute Cemetery, known as Evergreen Cemetery in the 19th century, is located on Ute Avenue in Aspen
, Colorado, United States. It is a small, overgrown parcel with approximately 200 burials. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
The cemetery was established early in Aspen's history, when a visiting prospector died upon arrival from Texas. There were no formal burial grounds in the new settlement, not even yet incorporated
as a city, and the land later used for the current cemetery was used for this first death in the new community. Later, even as two more formal cemeteries were established elsewhere in the city, it continued to be the burial ground for the city's poorer citizens, including some Civil War
veterans, until the Great Depression
in the 1930s.
After its last burials it fell unmaintained and overgrown, even as skiing and other resort industries revived Aspen's economy in the late 20th century. Trees grew amid many graves. A renovation in the early 21st century, following the listing on the Register, took account of the total graves and restored the many footpaths through the cemetery, popular with local hikers and mountain bikers, but left the wooded nature of the cemetery undisturbed. It is one of the few historic cemeteries in Colorado to have been completely restored.
is to the northeast and the residences of Ute Place to the northwest. Across Ute Avenue to the south are more residences.
Within the cemetery grounds the land is gently rolling, cresting in the west central area and at the southern corners, where the slopes of Aspen Mountain
rise across the street. On the northeast the land drops toward the river. The terrain is overgrown with many native species, including not only aspen
s but gambel oak
, serviceberry
and sagebrush
, and some evergreen species.
On all but the Ute Place side the cemetery's boundaries are marked by a wooden split-rail fence
, with openings for some of the trails. At the main entrance, midway along the south bound, is a sandstone
tablet with the names of the Civil War
veterans buried within. Curving narrow paths, most of them having evolved through use rather than any formal construction, allow passage through the cemetery. A 12 by brick foundation
, in very bad shape, at the northwest corner is the only remnant of what was possibly a caretaker's shed.
Approximately 175 graves have been identified at the cemetery, of which 125 are in the western half, in an apparently random pattern. In contrast, the 50 graves to the east are primarily Civil War veterans, buried in two long rows with government-issued markers, the only aspect of the cemetery indicating any planning. Among the other graves, only 25 have markers identifying the deceased. Some are surrounded by iron fences or stone walls, while others are indicated by small cobblestone coping
or are just depressions in the ground.
s began crossing the Continental Divide
at Independence Pass
in search of silver deposits in the Roaring Fork Valley
. Many set up their tents about ten miles (16 km) below the pass at the confluence
of the Roaring Fork and its tributary
Castle Creek, the first area they found suitable for large-scale settlement. It was called Ute City at first for the dominant local Native American
tribe.
A party of prospectors came to the new settlement in 1880 from Texas. One of them, known as Colonel Kirby, had taken ill with "mountain fever" (today known as brucellosis
) on the trail near Red Mountain
, and died shortly after reaching the party's destination. None of the few inhabitants of the growing community had yet died, so the site of the current cemetery was chosen for the burial, land then owned by Charles Hallam, owner of the Smuggler Mine.
Kirby's body was exhumed the following year to be taken back to Texas and reburied in his family plot. In the meantime the settlement had continued to grow and taken the name Aspen from the abundance of that tree. Town officials realized that they would need a formal burying ground as it grew. They wanted to find a more outlying location than the land Kirby had been buried in, but never did. Burials thus continued on the site, known then as Evergreen Cemetery, without any management, maintenance or oversight from the city. Early wooden or stone markers often fell victim to the severe mountain winters at the cemetery's 8000 feet (2,438.4 m)
Many of the early burials were miners killed in accidents or victims of avalanche
s in wintertime. Undertakers set up shop in the city, taking some of their dead into Ute on a road, no longer extant, that entered the northern edge of the cemetery. They did enough business that many were some of the first in Aspen to list their telephone numbers in advertisements. Those unable to afford one often performed their own services in the cemetery and erected their own monuments.
The city's annual Decoration Day (now Memorial Day
) ceremonies were held at the cemetery. This led to some occasional efforts to maintain the cemetery, most significantly in 1886. By 1888 two competing railroad lines had reached Aspen, giving mourners access to the kind of cut stone that could make fancier grave markers. The following year Aspen Grove Cemetery opened on the slopes below Smuggler Mountain. It was perhaps harder to reach but offered a more planned, rural cemetery
atmosphere with planted aspens in rows and a carriage access road with turnaround and became the burial ground preferred by middle-class and wealthy citizens. The less affluent, and miners with no local family, continued to be buried in Ute.
In 1890, one of the trains brought 15 government-issue markers meant for the veterans' graves at Ute. The local Grand Army of the Republic
veterans' organization began cleaning up the area where those graves currently are with the intention, never realized, of arranging them around a monument. The two rows, an arrangement which suggests an infantry formation, were completed with later veterans who died in Aspen. All of the Civil War veterans buried are from the Union, although there are reportedly two Confederate
veterans in the unmarked graves.
In its first decade, Aspen had grown from a primitive collection of tents and log cabins to city of more than 10,000, with a luxury hotel
and opera house
. That growth and prosperity came to an abrupt end in 1893. In response to that year's economic crisis
, Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
, which had up to then insured the federal government was a steady buyer of much of Aspen's silver. The private market was much smaller, and many of the miners and other businessmen who had come to the city left to try their luck elsewhere in the years afterward. Potato farming and ranching helped sustain Aspen through the beginning of the period known as the city's "quiet years".
Residents did not stop dying, and in 1900 Aspen Grove got competition from the elaborate Red Butte Cemetery, on the western edge of the city. It was even more modern, with driving paths and irrigated gardens, and many of the dead buried at Aspen Grove were moved there. Around this time, Evergreen Cemetery seems to have started being called Ute Cemetery. It is not known whether this was from the street at the cemetery's rear, the nearby spring of that name, or the city's original name. The advent of Red Butte led to discussions about replacing Ute with two new cemeteries, but these never came to pass.
City records show that 13 people were buried in Ute during the 1920s, many of them older residents who were indigent at the time of their deaths and could not afford markers. Aspen's population continued to decline to fewer than a thousand by the Depression
, and only one burial was recorded during that time. That was in 1935, just before skiing enthusiasts discovered the almost deserted town and the slopes of Aspen Mountain
, ideal for their rapidly growing sport.
Even as Aspen began growing again in the later 20th century, only two more burials took place at Ute. The new generation of residents left the cemetery untended, and as the few relatives of its dead who remained died themselves or moved elsewhere the cemetery became overgrown. Vandals
destroyed some of the headstones, or sold them to shops downtown.
Late in the century, affluent newer residents took an interest in historic preservation
. Some lobbied the city to restore the cemetery, and its listing on the Register began a two-year process paid for by the city and a grant from History Colorado
. Volunteers cleaned the cemetery, trimmed growth around the gravesites and improved the walking trails. The new monuments at the entrance on Ute Avenue were installed, and professional stoneworkers restored the carved stones monuments. It is one of the few historic cemeteries in Colorado to have been so thoroughly restored.
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
, Colorado, United States. It is a small, overgrown parcel with approximately 200 burials. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
The cemetery was established early in Aspen's history, when a visiting prospector died upon arrival from Texas. There were no formal burial grounds in the new settlement, not even yet incorporated
Municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
as a city, and the land later used for the current cemetery was used for this first death in the new community. Later, even as two more formal cemeteries were established elsewhere in the city, it continued to be the burial ground for the city's poorer citizens, including some Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
veterans, until the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
in the 1930s.
After its last burials it fell unmaintained and overgrown, even as skiing and other resort industries revived Aspen's economy in the late 20th century. Trees grew amid many graves. A renovation in the early 21st century, following the listing on the Register, took account of the total graves and restored the many footpaths through the cemetery, popular with local hikers and mountain bikers, but left the wooded nature of the cemetery undisturbed. It is one of the few historic cemeteries in Colorado to have been completely restored.
Grounds
The cemetery occupies an irregularly hexagonal 4.7 acres (1.9 ha) parcel on the north side of Ute Avenue just east of Ute Place in southeastern Aspen. A paved bike path runs between it and Ute. To the east, where the bike path turns to divide the two, is the city's small Ute Park. The Roaring Fork RiverRoaring Fork River
Roaring Fork River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in west central Colorado in the United States. The river drains a populated and economically vital area of the Colorado Western Slope called the Roaring Fork Valley or Roaring Fork Watershed, which includes the resort...
is to the northeast and the residences of Ute Place to the northwest. Across Ute Avenue to the south are more residences.
Within the cemetery grounds the land is gently rolling, cresting in the west central area and at the southern corners, where the slopes of Aspen Mountain
Aspen Mountain (Colorado)
Aspen Mountain is a mountain in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in the United States. One of the foothills of the Elk Mountains, it is located just south of the town of Aspen, which is situated at the foot of the mountain at the southeast end of the valley of the Roaring Fork River in Pitkin County...
rise across the street. On the northeast the land drops toward the river. The terrain is overgrown with many native species, including not only aspen
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
s but gambel oak
Gambel oak
Quercus gambelii, or Gambel oak, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub widespread in the foothills and lower mountain elevations of the central southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico: its range is centered on the Colorado Plateau–Four Corners states of Utah-Colorado,...
, serviceberry
Serviceberry
Amelanchier , also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, wild pear, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum or wild-plum, and chuckley pear is a genus of about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the Rose family .Amelanchier is native to temperate regions...
and sagebrush
Sagebrush
Sagebrush is a common name of a number of shrubby plant species in the genus Artemisia native to western North America;Or, the sagebrush steppe ecoregion, having one or more kinds of sagebrush, bunchgrasses and others;...
, and some evergreen species.
On all but the Ute Place side the cemetery's boundaries are marked by a wooden split-rail fence
Split-rail fence
A split-rail fence or log fence is a type of fence constructed out of timber logs, usually split lengthwise into rails and typically used for agricultural or decorative fencing. Such fences require much more timber than other types of fences, and so are generally only common in areas where wood is...
, with openings for some of the trails. At the main entrance, midway along the south bound, is a sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
tablet with the names of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
veterans buried within. Curving narrow paths, most of them having evolved through use rather than any formal construction, allow passage through the cemetery. A 12 by brick foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
, in very bad shape, at the northwest corner is the only remnant of what was possibly a caretaker's shed.
Approximately 175 graves have been identified at the cemetery, of which 125 are in the western half, in an apparently random pattern. In contrast, the 50 graves to the east are primarily Civil War veterans, buried in two long rows with government-issued markers, the only aspect of the cemetery indicating any planning. Among the other graves, only 25 have markers identifying the deceased. Some are surrounded by iron fences or stone walls, while others are indicated by small cobblestone coping
Coping (architecture)
Coping , consists of the capping or covering of a wall.A splayed or wedge coping slopes in a single direction; a saddle coping slopes to either side of a central high point....
or are just depressions in the ground.
History
In the late 1870s, shortly after Colorado became a state, prospectorProspector
Prospector may mean:*Prospecting, exploring an area for natural resources such as minerals, oil, flora or fauna*Prospector , a unified catalog for Colorado and Wyoming...
s began crossing the Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
at Independence Pass
Independence Pass (Colorado)
Independence Pass, elevation , is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.The pass crosses the ridge of the Sawatch Range between Aspen and Leadville, on the border between Pitkin and Lake counties, and is within the White River National Forest...
in search of silver deposits in the Roaring Fork Valley
Roaring Fork Valley
The Roaring Fork Valley is a geographical region in western Colorado in the United States. The Roaring Fork Valley is one of the most affluent regions in Colorado as well as one of the most populous and economically vital areas of the Colorado Western Slope. The Valley is defined by the valley of...
. Many set up their tents about ten miles (16 km) below the pass at the confluence
Confluence
Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...
of the Roaring Fork and its tributary
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
Castle Creek, the first area they found suitable for large-scale settlement. It was called Ute City at first for the dominant local Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe.
A party of prospectors came to the new settlement in 1880 from Texas. One of them, known as Colonel Kirby, had taken ill with "mountain fever" (today known as brucellosis
Brucellosis
Brucellosis, also called Bang's disease, Crimean fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Maltese fever, Mediterranean fever, rock fever, or undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonosis caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals or close contact with their secretions...
) on the trail near Red Mountain
Red Mountain (Colorado)
Red Mountain is a set of three peaks in the San Juan Mountains of western Colorado in the United States, about 5 miles south of Ouray. The mountains get their name from the reddish iron ore rocks that cover the surface...
, and died shortly after reaching the party's destination. None of the few inhabitants of the growing community had yet died, so the site of the current cemetery was chosen for the burial, land then owned by Charles Hallam, owner of the Smuggler Mine.
Kirby's body was exhumed the following year to be taken back to Texas and reburied in his family plot. In the meantime the settlement had continued to grow and taken the name Aspen from the abundance of that tree. Town officials realized that they would need a formal burying ground as it grew. They wanted to find a more outlying location than the land Kirby had been buried in, but never did. Burials thus continued on the site, known then as Evergreen Cemetery, without any management, maintenance or oversight from the city. Early wooden or stone markers often fell victim to the severe mountain winters at the cemetery's 8000 feet (2,438.4 m)
Many of the early burials were miners killed in accidents or victims of avalanche
Avalanche
An avalanche is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the...
s in wintertime. Undertakers set up shop in the city, taking some of their dead into Ute on a road, no longer extant, that entered the northern edge of the cemetery. They did enough business that many were some of the first in Aspen to list their telephone numbers in advertisements. Those unable to afford one often performed their own services in the cemetery and erected their own monuments.
The city's annual Decoration Day (now Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
) ceremonies were held at the cemetery. This led to some occasional efforts to maintain the cemetery, most significantly in 1886. By 1888 two competing railroad lines had reached Aspen, giving mourners access to the kind of cut stone that could make fancier grave markers. The following year Aspen Grove Cemetery opened on the slopes below Smuggler Mountain. It was perhaps harder to reach but offered a more planned, rural cemetery
Rural cemetery
The rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of burial ground that uses landscaping in a park-like setting.As early as 1711 the architect Sir Christopher Wren had advocated the creation of burial grounds on the outskirts of town, "inclosed with a strong Brick Wall, and having a walk round, and...
atmosphere with planted aspens in rows and a carriage access road with turnaround and became the burial ground preferred by middle-class and wealthy citizens. The less affluent, and miners with no local family, continued to be buried in Ute.
In 1890, one of the trains brought 15 government-issue markers meant for the veterans' graves at Ute. The local Grand Army of the Republic
Grand Army of the Republic
The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army, US Navy, US Marines and US Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. Founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, it was dissolved in 1956 when its last member died...
veterans' organization began cleaning up the area where those graves currently are with the intention, never realized, of arranging them around a monument. The two rows, an arrangement which suggests an infantry formation, were completed with later veterans who died in Aspen. All of the Civil War veterans buried are from the Union, although there are reportedly two Confederate
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
veterans in the unmarked graves.
In its first decade, Aspen had grown from a primitive collection of tents and log cabins to city of more than 10,000, with a luxury hotel
Hotel Jerome
The Hotel Jerome is located on East Main Street in Aspen, Colorado, United States. It is a brick structure built in the 1880s that is often described as one of the city's major landmarks, its "crown jewel". In 1986 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places...
and opera house
Wheeler Opera House
The Wheeler Opera House is located at the corner of East Hyman Avenue and South Mill Street in Aspen, Colorado, United States. It is a stone building erected during the 1890s, from a design by Willoughby J. Edbrooke...
. That growth and prosperity came to an abrupt end in 1893. In response to that year's economic crisis
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
, Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was enacted on July 14, 1890 as a United States federal law. It was named after its author, Senator John Sherman, an Ohio Republican, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee...
, which had up to then insured the federal government was a steady buyer of much of Aspen's silver. The private market was much smaller, and many of the miners and other businessmen who had come to the city left to try their luck elsewhere in the years afterward. Potato farming and ranching helped sustain Aspen through the beginning of the period known as the city's "quiet years".
Residents did not stop dying, and in 1900 Aspen Grove got competition from the elaborate Red Butte Cemetery, on the western edge of the city. It was even more modern, with driving paths and irrigated gardens, and many of the dead buried at Aspen Grove were moved there. Around this time, Evergreen Cemetery seems to have started being called Ute Cemetery. It is not known whether this was from the street at the cemetery's rear, the nearby spring of that name, or the city's original name. The advent of Red Butte led to discussions about replacing Ute with two new cemeteries, but these never came to pass.
City records show that 13 people were buried in Ute during the 1920s, many of them older residents who were indigent at the time of their deaths and could not afford markers. Aspen's population continued to decline to fewer than a thousand by the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and only one burial was recorded during that time. That was in 1935, just before skiing enthusiasts discovered the almost deserted town and the slopes of Aspen Mountain
Aspen Mountain (Colorado)
Aspen Mountain is a mountain in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in the United States. One of the foothills of the Elk Mountains, it is located just south of the town of Aspen, which is situated at the foot of the mountain at the southeast end of the valley of the Roaring Fork River in Pitkin County...
, ideal for their rapidly growing sport.
Even as Aspen began growing again in the later 20th century, only two more burials took place at Ute. The new generation of residents left the cemetery untended, and as the few relatives of its dead who remained died themselves or moved elsewhere the cemetery became overgrown. Vandals
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
destroyed some of the headstones, or sold them to shops downtown.
Late in the century, affluent newer residents took an interest in historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
. Some lobbied the city to restore the cemetery, and its listing on the Register began a two-year process paid for by the city and a grant from History Colorado
History Colorado
History Colorado, also known as the Colorado Historical Society , is a group dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of the state of Colorado in the USA.- Overview :...
. Volunteers cleaned the cemetery, trimmed growth around the gravesites and improved the walking trails. The new monuments at the entrance on Ute Avenue were installed, and professional stoneworkers restored the carved stones monuments. It is one of the few historic cemeteries in Colorado to have been so thoroughly restored.