Buckskin Joe Colorado - Gone & Back Again

Buckskin Joe, Colorado

Buckskin Joe Hotel in 1940

Buckskin Joe Hotel and Dancehall in 1940, Photo

courtesy Denver Public Library

Buckskin Joe Lives On!!! The original city was re-created some 70 miles southeast of its original location. Located near Canon City, the old frontier town was rebuilt, and provides tours and entertainment. Read about the "New" Buckskin Joe on the next page.

All that is left of Buckskin Joe now is the cemetery and its memories. Close inspection of the tombstone dates reveal a cemetery population boom in 1861 and 1862. The cemetery, which is down the road on the right from the settlement, also reveals the struggles of the miners and settlers. The stone grave of young Thomas Fahey records that on a blustery February day he left his cabin to go to his mine and did not return. His body was found the following June.

Many of the miners were immigrants from Europe. Images of home and echoes of their languages can be seen on some stones. The stones and gravesites with their ornate rails and gates exhibit a craft and workmanship that has outlasted the modest cabins and other structures in the town. The town of Alma still uses the cemetery.

The mining district reportedly produced 16 million dollars in gold from 1859 until the mill closed in 1866. After the mill closed, most of the people left to seek their fortune in other mining camps and towns throughout the Rocky Mountain West.

A few stalwarts remained. One was J.P. Stansell, who made a fortune working the leavings of the Phillips Mine long after the miners left. Another was Horace Tabor who would later make his fortune in Leadville.

The Legend of Silver Heels

A local hero and legend emerged in the town in 1861 -- a dance hall girl named "Silver Heels." From the day she stepped off the stagecoach at Buckskin Joe, her beauty captivated the entire mining camp. Her real name was never known, for the miners had long since dubbed her "Silver Heels," perhaps for her dance shoes or her enchanting performances. In any event, the beloved Silver Heels prepared to travel on after a few nightly performances, but when the miners showered her with gifts and begged her to stay, she agreed.

In the winter of 1861, the deadly disease small pox invaded the mining camp. The epidemic swept through the town and miners and families became very ill, almost overnight. Within a matter of days, the rutted dirt road to the cemetery became lined with the living carrying the dead up the hillside for burial. The citizens of Buckskin Joe sent to Denver for nurses, but none came. All who could help did so, including Silver Heels. Especially Silver Heels.

All through the deadly horror of the smallpox explosion, Silver Heels stayed in cabin after cabin, nursing the sick, caring for the families, burying the dead. By the spring of 1862, the worst was over, at least for the mining camp of Buckskin Joe. In the aftermath, Silver Heels had vanished. The surviving miners searched the entire mountain area. Her cabin was clean, yet she was gone. She had not left by stage or horse. Some say she, herself, had contracted smallpox, leaving her once beautiful face horribly scarred. A few years later, it was said that a heavily veiled woman was seen in the Buckskin Joe cemetery that many thought might have been the missing Silver Heels.

Buckskin Joe Saloon in 1940

Buckskin Joe Saloon in 1940, Photo courtesy

Denver Public Library

The people of the area named a mountain "Mount Silver Heels" in gratitude to this brave woman.

Legend has it that Silver Heels has never left. Several members of the community claim to have seen the ghost-like presence of a heavily veiled woman, dressed all in black walking through the cemetery. Carrying flowers, the once-beautiful Silver Heels has been seen and her presence felt for over a century. The ghost is said to vanish into the mountain air if approached. Once so beautiful, but then scarred. She was still loved, she just didn't know it.

Another restless spirit is said to inhabit the bones of J. Dawson Hidgepath. The man came to Fairplay to find gold and a wife, but instead found tragedy. In July 1865, Dawson's broken, lifeless body, was found at the bottom of the west side of Mount Boss, where he had apparently fallen several hundred feet while trying to prospect for gold on the mountainside. Soon after his burial, Dawson's bones were discovered on the bed of a prostitute in the town of Alma. Believing a tasteless prank had taken place; townspeople reburied the bones in Buckskin Joe Cemetery. Nevertheless, time after time again, the bones showed up at the house of some "fair lady." By 1872, Dawson's bones were the talk of the state, and people were throwing them down outhouses to get rid of them. What really went on is almost impossible to determine today, but whatever "force" kept Dawson's bones from staying buried is said to still reside in the old cemetery.

Continued Next Page

Buckskin Joe Cemetery

Buckskin Joe Cemetery today

Does the ghost of Silver Heels still haunt this cemetery in Buckskin Joe? Many locals have seen a ghostly spirit, who is veiled and dressed in black walking among these old stones.

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