The Golden Cemetery was created when the City purchased 27 acres for that purpose on May 27, 1873, for $425. It was a lovely spot, on a rise above town, with views in every direction. At that time of year, the mountains and valley would all have been green.
Within a few years, it became evident that the cemetery required more attention than anyone had planned to give it. At that time, grave sites were considered to be the property of the family that purchased them, and the owners were expected to maintain them. More often than not, this expectation was not met. Some deceased had no descendants; some descendants moved away, and some just didn’t feel called to maintain the graves. As another complication, there was no water available on the site, so there was no way to maintain flowers, bushes, or trees. The cemetery was a hot, dry, barren, tangle of weeds.
Beginning in 1883, the Colorado Transcript began hectoring and badgering the City and its residents to do something about the cemetery. The paper published major articles at least once a year, saying we should get a water supply to the cemetery. Some years it suggested a ditch from Clear Creek, others it said we should sink a well. One year it suggested catching runoff from the gulches to the west and creating a reservoir.
Public meetings were held every few years to whip up enthusiasm and funding. Money, of course, was the major obstacle. The City operated on a shoestring and had no money for such a major undertaking. Some citizens were willing to subscribe to a fund, but not enough. For a few years, the local undertaker wrote articles every spring, right before Memorial Day, listing actions needed to fix the cemetery.
This cycle of outrage, enthusiasm, and inaction persisted for more than 60 years until finally, in 1935, the cemetery found the champion it needed. Mayor A. E. Jones made it his personal mission to improve the state of the Golden cemetery. He described its condition as “Deplorable…not only weeds but monuments fallen over, and on some lots that have markers painted, the paint is gone and it is impossible to make out enough of the letters to form an idea as to who lies beneath.”
Mayor Jones approached the Federal government to see whether the W.P.A. (Roosevelt-era public works program) could help. He learned that they would provide labor, but not materials, so he set to work scrounging. He told everyone he met about the state of the cemetery and let everyone know that he needed pipe for an irrigation system. Many people donated old pipe. Adolph Coors donated a tank that they no longer used, and several hundred feet of discarded pipe. People donated trees from their yards. A 1937 Transcript article advised that if you’re looking for the Mayor, check the cemetery. You’ll find him there with a shovel or hoe or pipe wrench in his hands.
Mayor Jones also set up the system of perpetual care. For a fee, the City would agree to take care of a grave in perpetuity. They persuaded some residents to finance care for graves of their deceased family members. They asked the State Historical Society to fund care for some of the pioneer-era graves, and occasionally someone would endow a grave. The D.A.R. sponsored Edward Berthoud’s grave in 1939. He had died in 1910, and for many years his grave was unmarked. In 1943 the City began requiring perpetual care fees with all new grave site purchases.
With the small but growing fund for perpetual care, the cemetery slowly improved. In 1951, the City began a multi-year project to upgrade the Depression era cobbled-together irrigation system. They graded the streets and added gravel surface. They lined the streets with evergreens that they brought down from our Beaver Brook reservoir. Graves that had perpetual care were mowed and watered, gravestones straightened, and back-fill provided if they had sunk.
In earlier times, the custom had been to put fences or cement curbing around graves. This caused a maintenance problem for the caretakers, since grass needed to be hand-trimmed around those obstacles. Over time, with permission from owners, they removed the fences and curbs. The City let it be known that if grave owners would furnish the grass seed, the City would plant, water, and mow it.
By 1953, the Transcript was able to report that “Many out of town people have purchased plots as a result of the new perpetual care plan.”
