The Grave Origins Of Cheesman Park

The rolling terrain of Cheesman Park does not look like a cemetery

, but this beautiful Denver park was once known as Mount Prospect Cemetery and housed the vagabonds, neer-do-wells and criminals of Denvers wild days as an expanding frontier town.

Perhaps Abraham Kay might have something to say about the situation.He might actually be angrier about the fact that his status as the first person buried in Mount Prospect Cemetery in 1859 was largely ignored in favor of stories of a hung murderer being first laid to rest there.This may be due to the second man buried in the cemetery being hung for the murder of his brother-in-law, who was dumped into the grave with him.

Mount Prospect Cemetery became somewhat disreputable and the nicknames Old Boneyard and Boot Hill did nothing to improve matters.Known as the Denver City Cemetery in the late 1880s, the graveyard was a perfect place for any self-respecting specter to make appearances in, having tumbled gravestones, overgrown plots and an air of general malaise, except for a few scattered sites where family, friends and organizations maintained the plots.

It was in 1890 that the city had had enough of the reputation and ramshackle nature of the cemetery and authorized its conversion into a park.Part of this undertaking was the removal of remains, a job delegated to an E.P. McGovern.McGovern was paid by the box the container of human remains and, being an enterprising man, decided to make the most of his earning potential by using childrens caskets.With judicious use of axe and saw, one could see the value of the average adult body multiplied by 3. Unfortunately, the publicizing of his entrepreneurial efforts in the Denver Republican led to the termination of his contract.

The confusion of bones and other remains caused by McGovern and the souvenir hunters that flocked around his efforts was never cleared up and, despite the many remaining graves in the area, no one else was approached to take on the rest of the job.Grading and leveling began in 1894, disregarding the some-2000 bodies remaining on the grounds.Some of the opened graves remained open until 1902, when they became convenient for the planting of shrubbery.

So, if youre enjoying an afternoon lounging in the grass of Cheesman Park, be careful that the rock digging into your hip isnt actually a femur or perhaps an ulna.And dont let your dog bring home anything he digs up either.

by: Calen Brennan

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