Weekly Register-Call/ Gilpin County News

ATV and dirt bike access discouraged

Located front and center among the five cemeteries above Central City, the smallest plot of sacred ground, the Red Men Cemetery, was recently the scene of special preservation efforts by a group of local volunteers. Coordinated by Ray Rears of Gilpin County’s Historic Preservation Advisory Commission (HAC), about thirty people turned out Saturday morning for a day-long “Cemetery Clean-Up.” The group was divided into several teams, delegated to general clean-up or fencing duties. The Red Men Cemetery received both.

In past years, the cemeteries were peaceful, visited mainly by families of the deceased. Occasionally, tourists wandered the paths between grave markers, gleaning the human history of our area through epitaphs and longevity calculations. Today’s use of the cemetery area is a contradiction, sometimes a conflict. With access to national forest lands just up the adjacent Columbine Campground Road, the area around (and sometimes in) the cemeteries fills every weekend, outside of wintertime, with dirt-bike and ATV riders. Parked pick-up trucks and trailers occupy the open areas outside the cemetery fences. The off-road off-load disburses fifty or more motorized bikes and four-wheelers, whose riders have turned paths circumventing the cemeteries into rutted lane-wide trails. With a “road bisecting it and no fence to protect it, the Red Men was fair game.

On Saturday morning, the clean-up crews watched as truck after truck, bearing trailers loaded with multiple ATV’s (one with a half dozen dirt bikes) arrived every hour – 23 trucks in all. With locals parked in the space by the Red Men Cemetery, the off-roaders vied for the remaining parking spaces and soon lined the roadsides. Ramps were lowered from the tailgates, vehicles wheeled to the ground; engines sputtered to a start and the riders took off, generally headed up the road, though a few made their rounds of the cemeteries. If not seen, they were heard. Clearly visible, however, was the trash and debris that’s been left behind.

In fluorescent vests of orange and yellow, the cleanup crews were easy to spot between tombstones and trees as they plucked beer cans, bottles and food wrappers, all too numerous to count, from the grounds of the five cemeteries. Rusted metal pieces discovered dumped in one area, when assembled, were found to be the remains of a large propane barbecue grill. That, plus an old real estate sign, pieces of pipe and strips of aluminum siding, were the largest pieces of debris. These were piled into or onto the clean-up crew’s truck and trailer. Big black garbage bags accumulated as the crews exchange their full bags for empty ones. While they moved through the International Order of Odd Fellows, Catholic, City of Central, Forresters, and Knights of Pythias Cemeteries, others were cleaning up and fencing the Red Men Cemetery.

There are 17 different families represented by the 26 known graves in the Red Men. This burial ground served the patriotic fraternal organization descended from the Sons of Liberty, organized in 1765, that worked clandestinely for the Colonies’ independence. They modeled their structure on the democratic governing body of the Iroquois Confederacy. In 1812, they changed their name to the Society of Red Men, later amending that to the Improved Order of Red Men which has been the official name since 1834. The oldest grave in the Red Men Cemetery is that of Thomas Liddecoat who died in 1884; the last burial at the Red Men occurred in 1913. There are now only two members of the Red Men’s Colorado order living. Neither of the elderly men are local residents and both have communicated with Rears that they would be willing to let another entity take on the cemetery’s ownership. (County Commissioners are considering.) They had gladly granted permission for the work done Saturday. In addition to trash pick-up and fencing, crews trimmed the vegetation growing up around the gravesites, revealing the sometimes deteriorated condition of the tombstones. The 1891 marker for 19 year-old “Jennie, Wife of Peter Sonne,” was found toppled from its base. The marks of the chain someone had wrapped around it, probably connected to a vehicle to pull it down, were clearly visible. At that point, if the vandals had intended to steal the marker, they likely discovered it was too heavy to manage. It took the strength and guiding hands of six men to reposition Jennie’s headstone to its rightful place and only after they had raised and leveled the base and applied epoxy to secure the cement base and two-part granite marker. On a nearby grave, only the base remains. Volunteers hope the four-strand fence they erected will help preserve the remaining stones and prevent further damage to the cemetery.

Seventeen different groups and individuals contributed materials, equipment and manpower to the Red Men preservation effort. That included the County and the municipalities of Central City and Black Hawk. They contributed equipment and labor to set the corner posts, as well as some of the food for the volunteers. Other donations of materials, food and cash came in from Hutchison Western, Prospectors Run, Air O Pure Portables, Broken Handle Mining Company, St. James Methodist Church, Central City Elks, Gilpin Historical Society, Lady Luck Casino, B&F Market, Clear Creek/Gilpin Abstract & Title Company, Wyoming Chili Company, the Newman family, Connie McLain, and Zane Laubhan. The volunteers brought shovels, trimmers, wire stretchers and other tools. Most of the metal fence posts were pounded in by hand until Joe and Cynthia Phillips showed up with their tractor and mechanized driver. For the most part, gloves, sunscreen, plenty of water and old-fashioned muscle were the order of the day.

The invasion of off-roaders that turn the cemetery area into a weekend parking lot and tail-gating party has been a topic at Central City Council and County Commissioner meetings several times. Jurisdiction of the area is unclear. The boundaries of City, County and Forest Service lands aren’t clear and an expensive survey will be needed to determine them. If the expense can be shared, perhaps a survey will be ordered. If that happens and jurisdiction is clarified, the entities can govern their own areas, perhaps limiting or even prohibiting motorized use. Currently, there is no overnight camping allowed in the area. The Sheriff’s Office had provided a deputy on Saturday, in case of confrontation from the off-road users. He also warned several of the riders they couldn’t be on county roads unless their vehicles were licensed for that purpose. The off-road vehicles are allowed to ride the trails on forest land, but volunteers suggested a different location could be created for their staging area or access limited to fewer vehicles. The local governments and residents would all like to see less traffic, noise, trash and impact at the cemeteries. The new fencing should now discourage, if not prevent, riding through the Red Men.