Local History, Myths, and Legends

Here's some history that's wrapped up in the Buckskin/Alma Cemetery. I covered the cemetery walk in Oct. 2013 for The Flume and there are a lot of bits and pieces of history included in this article.

Posted: Friday, September 27, 2013 5:04 pm
Walter L. Newton, Correspondent | 1 comment

For the seventh year, residents and visitors to Park County have been able to enjoy a cast of colorful historical characters at the Alma Buckskin Days Moon Cemetery Walk.

Organized by the Mosquito Range Heritage Initiative and helmed by Vice President Sheila Skaggs, this year’s walk attracted around 320 participants.

Backstory
Buckskin is a ghost town two miles west of Alma. The town was established in September of 1860 and formally known as Laurette (or Lauret), but it was popularly known as Buckskin. Like many early Colorado towns, it’s reason for existence was “gold in them thar hills.”

Buckskin was originally the seat of Park County, and its proximity to the newly discovered gold in Buckskin Creek naturally attracted the explorers and entrepreneurs, the grifters and gamblers.

The plot
Every year, MRHI peppers the environs of the Buckskin/Alma Cemetery with living stand-ins for various personalities who are buried there. The walk through the cemetery, which was established in 1863, brings the guests face-to-face with these role-playing docents.

Dramatis personae
The historical (and mythical) specters this year included:
•Buckskin Joe (portrayed by Tim Zingler) who was also known as Joseph Higginbottom, an early prospector and trapper customarily considered the source of the name for the town of Buckskin.
•Father John Dyer (portrayed by Andrew Zimmerman), a Methodist itinerant preacher (and sometime prospector) who came to Buckskin in 1862. He traveled the length and breadth of Colorado preaching the Word of God and died in 1901.
•Mrs. MacAndrew (portrayed by Sara Edinberg), a widow who lived in a cabin outside of Buckskin. Her three sons were in charge of delivering food to her on a regular basis. One winter they stopped bringing her that food, and she starved to death.
•Silver Heels (portrayed by Allison Hoy), an enigmatic saloon entertainer who was said to have nursed Buckskin’s townsfolk through a winter outbreak of smallpox and eventually became stricken with the illness herself. Quarantined to a lonely cabin, one day she simply disappeared. While history doesn’t confirm that she ever existed, as in all legends there is probably a grain of truth to the story.
•Other inhabitants of Buckskin cemetery included a miner named Lyman Fay (portrayed by Jara Johnson); Cora Anderson (portrayed by Linda Kasprzyk), who was a local schoolteacher; and two of her students (Brooke and Bryn Kasprzyk, who were dressed as angels), who died young and are buried in the cemetery.
•Also featured were Thomas Faley (portrayed by Dale Uncapher), a hard-drinking but picturesque miner who died drunk during a snowstorm; and Fanny Smith (portrayed by Kim Dufty), a female miner who was a widow.
•John Swank (portrayed by Seamus Gannon), a mine worker who fell down a mine shaft at the age of 15 and died; Sophie Richardson (portrayed by Caroline Gannon); and a Saloon Dancer (portrayed by MRHI President Ginni Greer), were also featured.
•Rounding out the cast was the Sunday Dresser (portrayed by Kirsten Springer), who was a greeter and cemetery walk guide.
“We had new characters this year and removed a few for historical accuracy,” said Greer.

Act one
Linda Balough, director of the South Park National Heritage Area, once again arranged to have author Christie Wright come to the Alma Town Hall and speak to the participants. Her book “All That Lies Beneath” is a history of many of those interred in Buckskin Cemetery.

She supplied information about the miners, soldiers, those who died of illness, and especially the children, who had a high mortality rate in those frontier days. Copies of her book were available, and the all proceeds from the sales went to MRHI.

Act two
After the talk at the Town Hall, the cemetery enthusiasts hustled up to the cemetery in some of those newfangled motor cars and parked outside of the cemetery’s circular drive, eager to visit the simulacrums (unreal or vague semblances) haunting the cemetery.

They were guided to various points in the cemetery, where they were greeted by the dramatis personae who proceeded to speak about their characters and the history of Buckskin and the region.

As all gathered back at the parking lot, they had the opportunity to take the edge off the chilly night at a bonfire. Cookies, hot chocolate and hot cider were available, and the younger enthusiasts were treated to various Halloween treats, toys and doodads.

Denouement
Photographer Tim Balough was asked if anyone had seen the real ghost of Silver Heels moving through the cemetery visiting the graves of the smallpox patients she had so valiantly cared for.

“Not that night, but there have been times when she was allegedly sighted,” he said.

Well maybe next year?

This year’s event was dedicated to Mike Skaggs, deceased husband of Sheila Skaggs, and JoAnn Dufty, deceased mother of Kim Dufty.

http://www.theflume.com/news/article_32 ... f6878.html

On an episode of "Have Gun Will Travel" an old western, they devoted an episode to having Paladin find what became of Silverheels, same story, but they changed the name.

The Utes, Chief Colorow, and the Ken Caryl Ranch

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The Ute Indians, more than any other tribe of Plains Indians, seemed to feel a special affinity for the Valley. Living in tepees, which could easily be taken down and rolled up, the Utes traveled and lived for a long time throughout the Morrison area to the north of the Valley. They had a trail that passed through the Ranch, a section of which the Bradford Road followed.

Deposed Ute Indian Chief Colorow, an immense six-foot-five inches estimated to weigh 275 lb., was often seen in this area. Named for a slurred version of Colorado, he was actually part Comanche and captured by the Utes as a boy. He disliked the white man, not so much generally as individually. He despised the individual miners and trappers and especially the settlers who were invading his land. He would ride up to a settler’s cabin and shout, “This is Ute land! One, two sleep – you go!” And often they did.

Eventually the white men grew too numerous. Colorow and his men retired to the red rocks and made almost daily rounds of the settlers demand¬ing food, clothing and anything else to which they took a fancy. One particularly notable fancy was biscuits, thick with syrup, which Colorow would eat as fast and as long as a ranch wife could bake them.

In a reminiscence written for the State Historical Society, Dora I. Foster tells of visiting her aunt in Bradford City and of the day the Indians appeared. Dora and her aunt made biscuits as fast as they were able, but since they did not want the Indians to find their store of flour in the pantry, brought out only enough at one time for a batch or two. Finally the aunt, tiring of the game, told the Indians she had no more flour. The Indians, thereupon, brought forth more flour wrapped in greasy skin pouches and bits of dirty rags. The baking continued.

After the Meeker Massacre in 1879 the Utes were sent to the Uintah Indian Reservation on the Colorado-Utah border. Colorow was one of the last to leave and promised, “I go now. In winter I come back – hunt deer and elk.” Every winter for seven years he returned to his Shining Mountains for the traditional winter hunt. He himself was quarry for the government men, but he eluded them until 1888 when he was wounded in a battle with a posse. He went into hiding at his camp at the mouth of the White River near the Uintah Reservation, but developed pneumonia and died in December.