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From: Linda Welden <>
Subject: [Old Bones CEMETERY-L] [Fwd: {not a subscriber} DENVER PARK & CEMETERY]
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 00:00:24 -0700


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Subject: {not a subscriber} DENVER PARK & CEMETERY
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 21:29:10 -0700
From: "kdcheesman" <>
To: <>

DENVER PARK & CEMETERY
David R. Cheesman

In the late 1880's, city officials of Denver, Colorado, decided the City
Graveyard in downtown Denver was an eye-sore and should be destroyed
and converted into a public park.
This caused tremendous unrest among Denver's citizens, especially those
who had relatives and friends buried there.
This cemetery really held a variety of characters of its time including
pioneers, religious leaders, lawyers, and ordinary citizens to name a
few. A portion of the cemetery was also a part of Denver's infamous
"Boothill" and the final resting place of gun slingers and those who
swung from the ends of
ropes. Weathered wooden headboard markers stood in the shadow of
elaborate granite monuments.
The city of Denver was on the verge of riots, some threatened to burn
down the houses of those who sought to destroy the old cemetery and some
citizens argued from thje legal perspective that veterans of wars was
buried there and therefore the grounds could not be disturbed even in
the name of "Progress."
Thus, the matter was then taken up with the U.S. Congress.
After long debates, the United States Congress granted approval of the
city's conversion to a city park on conditions that ALL known interments
be disinterred, and properly reburied in vaulted graves at another
cemetery, and that ALL burial markers be removed the deceased persons
and properly reset at each gravesite at city expense.
Only with Congressional approval, and within strict guidelines, was the
city allowed to convert the eye sore cemetery into other use.
The city of Denver disinterred 788 bodies from the old graveyard, and
reburied them at another burial ground under supervision. The old
cemetery in downtown Denver was converted into an attractive city park
in 1893 and named Congressional Park in tribute to Capitol Hill for
its approval.
But, citizens of Denver and elsewhere was still strongly upset and very
bitter over having converted the hollowed grounds into a public park.
For it is said at least a few thousand people remain buried there in
unmarked graves, and some believed Congress sold them out.
To end the bitterness, Mayor Speer signed an ordinance in 1907
officially changing Congress Park to Cheesman Park to
honor one of Denver's most beloved community leaders, the
late Walter Scott Cheesman (1838-1907).
With that the arguing gradually ceased.
The case history here is cited, to demonstrate that cemeteries cannot
legally be destroyed without Congressional approval if veterans of wars
are interred at the grounds, and it may prove prudent to document such
interments at all cemeteries possible.
Thank you.

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