Everyone loves a good ghost story. That’s what makes authors like Stephen King, Bentley Little and Robert R. McCammon so popular. Haunted Colorado was made “mainstream” by Stephen King’s The Shining, but you won’t find The Overlook Hotel here, though there is The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park where Stephen King received the inspiration for his classic story. The Stanley is even rumored to be haunted herself. If you go to the Stanley, a word to the wise: stay away from Room 217, beware of the antique firehouses mounted against the walls and try the Red Rum … it’s to die for.
We continue our tour of “These Haunted States of America” in Colorado. The Centennial State” is home to 4,301,261 people, as well as the ghosts of some notorious Wild West outlaws, trapped miners, a ghostly train and the restless bones of a man that won’t stay buried. So, the next time you’re in Colorado, here are 10 haunted locations to visit.
1. BROWN’S PARK: Brown’s Hole
Some of the country’s most infamous outlaws have holed up in this area. The ruins of Butch’s Cabin (used by Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch) are found here. Many locals and visitors have reported being “drawn back in time by the powerful emotions of the colorful individuals who once rode through this valley.” Others have reported being overwhelmed and even “possessed” by the lingering and powerful spirits that were once here.
2. CENTRAL CITY: Masonic Cemetery
The ghost of a woman in black has been witnessed placing flowers on the grave of John Edward Cameron, who died on November 1, 1887, at the age of twenty-eight. According to local legend, a “beautiful woman in black” was in attendance and has returned every April 5 and November 1 to place the blue columbine flowers on Cameron’s grave. It was soon believed that she was a lover who had killed herself after Cameron married another woman, though some believe that she was responsible for the “heart paralysis” (through poison) that killed Cameron. On November 1, 1887, a group of determined people congregated at Cameron’s grave determined to find out who the mysterious woman was. When she appeared and began to lay the flowers on the grave, two of the men made to grab her, but she vanished.
Dead Man’s Canyon is plagued by the gruesome shade of a man with an ax in his forehead. He is believed to be the ghost of William Harkins who was killed in 1863 by a “gang of Mexican religious fanatics.” Numerous people have been chased by Harkins’ ghost and one angry mother even hit Harkins’ in the ear for frightening her son before she realized that he was a ghost.
Once a funeral parlor, Mrs. T.F. Dunn converted this building into a boarding house when her husband, Cripple Creek’s mortician, passed away. Her presence is still reported in the eleven rooms and some have even said that they have heard her footsteps as she moves around cleaning the rooms. However, Mrs. Dunn’s spirit is not the only one that psychics have felt in the building. Local legend “says it is the restless spirit of a miner killed in an explosion. Late one night, while the undertaker was preparing the body, the ‘dead’ miner began to moan in pain. Not wanting to delay his job or cancel preparations, the mortician injected morphine to quiet the man and continued his work.”
5. CRIPPLE CREEK: Mamie R Mine
The Mamie R. Mine is reputed to be haunted by the ghosts of three mines who died in separate accidents in 1894. Miners have reported seeing their spirits “in the main shaft, at the 375-foot level, and in isolated drifts in the deeper recesses of mine.” One is said to be carrying his severed arm and another is rumored to like riding in the ore buckets. The Mamie R is also said to be home to spirits called “Tommyknockers” who cause all sorts of malevolent mischief such support beams to collapse and explosions to go off early.
6. DENVER: Chessman Park
While to all outward appearances, Chessman Park is an innocent city park, it hides a gruesome secret underneath its calm surface: Chessman Park is built on top of a graveyard. Originally built in 1858 Mount Prospect Graveyard became City Cemetery in 1873 and only criminals, the indigent and those who died in epidemics were buried there. However, that all changed in 1893 when the city gave notice that all those buried in City Cemetery were to be moved within ninety days. Only the Catholic and Jewish sections of the cemetery were removed in an “orderly fashion” and when the ninety days had expired, many of those buried in City Cemetery were still there. An undertaker was hired by the city to remove the “six to ten thousands remaining bodies, put them in one-foot by three-and-a-half-foot pine boxes and deliver them for burial at Riverside Cemetery.” By all accounts, it was a gruesome sight. Corpses were broken into pieces in order to make them fit into the smaller coffins. Body parts were strewn across the cemetery and ended up being mixed together and confused by workers. In addition, numerous graves were looted by the workers. Psychics warned that those whose graves had been “disturbed” would not rest easy “unless a short prayer was uttered for each casket.” No one listened. Ghosts of those from City Cemetery began to appear in neighboring homes. As expected, a scandal erupted. Denver Mayor Platt Rogers ordered work halted and an investigation into the debacle was launched. Unfortunately, no one was able to make any sense of the mess the workers had created. Accordingly, the remaining bodies were “plowed under, and grass and trees planted.” Today, there are reports of feelings of “confusion and sadness” at the park and some have even said that they can hear a “low moaning sound” coming from beneath the park.
According to local legend, the Gates of Hell opened on the second floor of the Denver Courthouse in 1900. Night watchmen and janitors have reported that every night for seven days at 3:00 A.M. dozens of ghosts walked the halls “accompanied by the overpowering stench of brimstone.” One was even identified as a courtroom elevator operator who had fallen to his death down the elevator shaft. The nightly appearances proved to be too much for two courthouse workers who quit and moved out of Denver.
It is said that this log-cabin lodge is haunted by the couple who built it in 1917. Ethel and Gordon Mace still walk the halls of their little inn and have been seen by both employees and guests over the years. Ethel is rumored to be especially active in her old bedroom and in the Key Room which houses “the largest collection of keys in the world.” The Key Room’s collection began when lawyer Clarence Darrow donated one of his own keys to the Baldpate Inn. Now the celebrity key collection has over twelve thousand which “include Edgar Allan Poe’s dorm room key and Stephen King’s key to the hotel room where he wrote The Shining.
9. FAIRPLAY: Buckskin Cemetery
J. Dawson Hidgepath came to Fairplay to find gold and wife, but only found calamity. In July 1865, his body was found at the bottom of Mount Boss, broken and lifeless. He had apparently fallen hundreds of feet off the mountainside while trying to prospect for gold. Hidgepath’s story did not end there. Shortly after his burial, his bones were found in the bed of a dance-hall girl. It was assumed that pranksters with a macabre sense of humor were responsible and so he was reburied in the Buckskin Cemetery. However, his bones did not stay at rest. They were found over and over in the bed of some unfortunate young woman. By 1872, the restless bones of J. Dawson Hidgepath were the talk of the state. People began to resort to any means necessary to dispose of Hidgepath’s remains, even throwing them down outhouses when they were found in a home. Still, they always managed to find their way back to some young girl’sboudoir. To this day, no one knows what went on in Fairplay, though local legend states that whatever it was that kept the young man’s bones from being buried still lurks in the old Buckskin Cemetery.
The Denver and Rio Grand Railroad tracks outside of Grand Junction are haunted by the phantom of Engine 107. Engine 107, named “Dread 107” by other engineers, is responsible for the deaths of many people in its day. During one of its first run, the train fell off a trestle killing “several trainmen and many passengers.” Soon after 107 was rebuilt, it struck a boulder on the tracks and dozens were killed or injured. It was rebuilt again only to hot a snowslide in the Black Canyon which killed more passengers. In 1909, the seemingly cursed steam locomotive was scrapped. However, even scrapping the “Dread 107” wasn’t enough. The phantom train and its ghostly whistle are still seen and heard along the tracks here. The phantom train is seen along the old Denver and Rio Grande railroad tracks that ran between Grand Junction and Gunnison. The train, or its ghostly whistle, is most often encountered near the Gunnison River and Crystal Creek.
Up Next on our Haunted Road Trip across America: “Haunted Connecticut, Seventh in a Series of ‘These Haunted States of America’: 10 Haunted Places to Visit during Your Next Trip to Connecticut.
