Haunted Cheesman Park in Denver, Colorado

Ghosts of Cheesman Park in Denver, Colorado

When the Denver Republican got hold of the story, its headline proclaimed on March 19, 1893: "The Work of Ghouls!" The article described, in detail, McGovern’s practice of hacking up what were sometimes intact remains of the dead and stuffing them into undersized boxes. The article, in part, described the scene thusly:

"The line of desecrated graves at the southern boundary of the cemetery sickened and horrified everybody by the appearance they presented. Around their edges were piled broken coffins, rent and tattered shrouds and fragments of clothing that had been torn from the dead bodies...All were trampled into the ground by the footsteps of the gravediggers like rejected junk."

Ghoul

"The Work of Ghouls!"

- The Denver Republcan on March 19, 1893

The Health Commissioner immediately began an investigation into the matter and as a result, Mayor Rogers terminated the contract. Afterwards, the city built a temporary wooden fence around the cemetery, leaving it in shambles with open holes still displayed. Though numerous graves had not yet been reached and others sat exposed, a new contract for moving the bodies was never awarded.

In 1894, grading and leveling began in preparation for the park, though several of the open graves wouldn’t be filled in until 1902, when shrubs were planted in many of them. The park was finally completed in 1907, without ever having moved the rest of the bodies. Two years later, in 1909, Gladys Cheesman-Evans, and her mother, Mrs. Walter S. Cheesman, donated a marble pavilion in memory of Denver pioneer, Walter Cheesman. The donation was conditional that part of the park’s be designated as Cheesman Park and so it was. The pavilion continues to stand today.

In 1923, the bodies from the Hebrew Burial ground were removed to other sites and the cemetery returned to the city, where the site currently serves as the site of the reservoir in Congress Park.

The section once used as the Chinese cemetery was used as the city tree and shrub nursery until 1930 when a WPA project converted it to an addition for Congress Park.

In 1950, the Catholic Church moved the remains of those interred in the Mount Cavalry Cemetery and sold the land back to the city, which is now the location of Denver's Botanical Gardens.

The vast majority of present day Cheesman Park was mostly the Protestant portion of the old cemetery. A residential community separates Cheesman from Congress Park.

Today, an estimated 2,000 bodies remain buried in Cheesman Park.

It comes as no surprise that the spirits of these forgotten, looted, and sometimes desecrated bodies continue to make their presence known, not only at Cheesman Park, but in neighborhood that surrounds it.

Cheesman Park vintage postcard

Cheesman Park vintage postcard.

Almost immediately, when the bodies began to be removed from the cemetery in 1893, strange things began to happen. One of the first reports was when a grave digger named Jim Astor felt a ghost land upon his shoulders. Astor, who had been looting the graves as he moved the bodies, immediately ran from the graveyard and failed to return to work the next day.

Those living in residences surrounding the graveyard began to report sad and confused looking spirits knocking at their doors and windows, as well as the sounds of moans coming from the still yet open graves.

Today, these restless spirits are still said to occupy the park as dozens of tales continue to be told of paranormal activities taking place. Most visitors tell of feelings of unexplainable sadness or dread in a place, that is today, meant for pleasure and relaxation. But other reports are more specific, often including the sounds of hundreds of whispering voices and moans that continue to come from the fields where the open graves once laid.

Children have been seen playing in the park during the night before they mysteriously disappear and a woman is said to be seen singing to herself, before she too, suddenly vanishes.

On some moonlit nights, the outlines of the old graves can still allegedly be seen. Others have also claimed that after lying on the grass, they have found it difficult to get up, as if unseen forces are restraining them.

Yet more reports tell of strange shadows and misty figures that seem to wander through through the park in confusion.

Cheesman Park is located at Franklin and 8th Streets and is open from dawn until 11:00 p.m.

October, 2005

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Cheesman Park in Denver, Colorado

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