Skip to content

Search the site

Stonescapes, Sunday Swing, and Cemetery Stories

Golden Eye Candy – Joyce Davell – Military Helicopter – enlarge

What’s Happening in Golden Today?

9:30-11:30AM Full Walking Tour @ Dinosaur Ridge
10AM-3PM Brunch at the Rose @ Buffalo Rose

2-4PM Sunday at the Museum @ Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum
Stone Portraits | Stonescapes – Denise Labadie will talk about her creative process and tell satires of her inspiring travels. Members Free | Non-Members $10 More information

3-4PM Wordplay Writing Workshop @ Golden Library
Poetry is not dead, but sometimes it feels that way! Here you can express yourself, expand your creative writing skills and see how cool poetry can be. Throw out the grammar book, let down your guard and have fun with the possibilities of verse by trying unusual writing activities and playing unconventional games that sometimes involve no writing at all! All skills levels welcome. Ideal for the 12-18 crowd. More information

1PM and 7PM Too Fabulous to Fail @ Mines Little Theater (map)
It’s a tale as old as time: an aspiring actress from a small town arrives in New York City to pursue her goal of performing on Broadway. Along the way, however, she somehow finds herself temping at a financial firm and chasing after the man of her dreams. Also, she happens to seize control of that company and run it into the ground while fleeing from the police, immigration officials, and guys dressed up in Elmo costumes. A wild and crazy almost-musical comedy about the dangers of reaching for your dreams. Tickets (available at the door) $7 for Students * $10 General Admission


Live Music

11AM-2PM Jon Ridnell @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
2-6PM Pair of Jokers @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse

2-5PM Keith Hicks @ Golden Mill
4-7PM Johnny O @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)

4-7:30PM Sunday Swing with the Flatirons Jazz Orchestra @ Buffalo Rose
5-8PM Chaz DePaulo Trio @ Over Yonder
8PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern


Golden History Moment

Cemetery Hill (circled) shown in 1870 – Dan Abbott collection – enlarge

150 Years Ago
Golden’s original burying ground was on a hill north of downtown. It was called Cemetery Hill at that time, and is now Goldco Circle (map). The site was never formally laid out, so it was a haphazard kind of cemetery. It was also difficult to access: the hill was too steep for a wagon, and it was hard work for pall bearers to carry a coffin up the slope. These and other concerns were detailed in a letter sent to the Colorado Transcript editor, which appeared in the November 13, 1872 edition.

EDITOR TRANSCRIPT: I have been not a little surprised to see the apathy and cold indifference manifested on the part of the citizens of this place with regard to proper burial grounds. It is a fact remarked by strangers as well as by many citizens that the present place for interring the dead is a shame, if not a disgrace to the place. The graves are strewn around promiscuously without order or system, and beside, the grounds can never be ornamented, as water cannot be gotten upon them. And still further, the grounds belong to private individuals, and every one who inters upon these grounds is a trespasser, and will doubtless sooner or later have to negotiate for the land or remove the dead.

The letter went on to urge the town to buy some more suitable property to establish an official, permanent cemetery.

The town did buy land for that purpose the following year. The original 27 acres of land for the Golden Cemetery was purchased on May 27, 1873 for $425.

44 Years Ago
The November 13, 1978 Golden Transcript featured an interview with Arthur Meinecke, who had been serving as sexton (caretaker) of the Golden Cemetery for 26 years. He was responsible for selling plots, digging and refilling graves, setting up for funerals, maintaining the landscaping in summer and plowing the roads in winter.

That summer, he had experienced a cement shortage. At one point he had 12 headstones to set and no concrete to set them in. Shortly after he solved the cement problem, vandals struck the cemetery. Two local kids tipped over 14 headstones. Mr. Meinecke had just set up chairs for a funeral and the youths threw the chairs into the open grave. Fortunately, a visitor to the cemetery spotted the vandals and alerted the sexton. He called the police, who arrived quickly and caught them in the act. In November, they were still making restitution payments.

As of 44 years ago, there were about 5,000 people buried in the cemetery and there was room for about 11,300 more. There were four sections in the cemetery. The county owned a “pauper section,” where destitute people were buried without charge. There was also a veterans section, an Oddfellows section, and a section that had originally belonged to the Masons but which had been turned over to the city.

The city had purchased a backhoe for digging graves in 1957. Prior to that, Meinecke had dug them by hand. When the ground was frozen or the clay soil was particularly hard, he had sometimes used as many as a dozen sticks of dynamite to loosen the soil prior to digging.

The costs in 1978 were as follows:

Grave space: $275
Perpetual care: $75
Grave opening and closing: $100

Today’s costs (according to goldencemetery.com) are:

Grave space: $1800 (resident) – $2400 (non-resident)
Perpetual care: $540 (resident) – $725 (non-resident)
Grave opening and closing: $1620 (resident) – $1620 (non-resident)


Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!

Highlights