Building A Necropolis: Life, Death, Newspapers, and Marginalization in Early Denver and its Pioneer Cemetery

Trowbridge, Marni Grace

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Building A Necropolis: Life, Death, Newspapers, and Marginalization in Early Denver and its Pioneer Cemetery Public Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/n583xw72h

Abstract

In 1858, William H. Larimer arrived at the shallows of Cherry Creek—a launching point for the gold diggings of the Pike’s Peak region. Not only did he snatch up already claimed land to build a city, but he also wrestled control of the hilltop on the outskirts of the settlement that housed an old tribal burial ground rumored to contain the graves of Native Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples. While Larimer’s collection of city-building ventures proved promising early on, his role in the development of Denver was short-lived. In 1865, less than seven years after landing in the remote mining community, Larimer left the area for other pursuits.

The hilltop graveyard, however, became a symbol of early Denver, occupying the minds of residents and securing a prime spot in local newspapers throughout the late 1800s. Mount Prospect, as the cemetery came to be known, initially stirred hope that by building a charming and aesthetically pleasing location for its dead, the city might gain respectability and become a beacon of civilization and progress in the West. Sadly though, this burial ground fell into disrepair, earning bad newspaper publicity and a shameful reputation as a forlorn and unsalvageable spot. After decades of occupying space at the margins of society, Mount Prospect was officially removed from the landscape—dug up, relocated, and plowed over. In its wake, two new cemeteries came into existence, offering a renewed sense of pride for the city.

This paper explores the history of Denver’s original pioneer cemetery—Mount Prospect—to portray city development from the vantage point of the burial ground. It also considers the ways newspapers depicted this space. By studying this landscape from its inception in 1858 through its deconstruction by the end of the 1940s, one can see how distinctions made in life regarding class, religion, race, and ethnicity significantly influenced one’s burial location and memorialization. The graveyard of early Denver, renamed City Cemetery in time, tended to reinforce the separations forged in life between diverse groups and maintained notions of “otherness” across its terrain. The cemetery setting or “deathscape” served as a stark reminder for city residents that stratification persisted in death much as it did in life.

At its core, this project is a cemetery study, and it demonstrates that the marginalization and exclusion experienced in life by racialized groups of African Americans, Chinese, and Japanese, also carried over into death. Additionally, others who claimed membership in various social organizations also received graveyard accommodations based upon their affiliation with such groups. Thus, Denver’s earliest graveyard garnered its reputation based upon those interred there.

Through time, the cemetery’s image shifted dramatically in the minds of locals; It would either be well-revered and central to city life, or it would be devalued and in need of alteration or removal. In early Denver, society’s conceptualization of its cemetery landscape became tethered to its notions about diverse peoples and groups.

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