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Cheesman Park Cemetery & Park

In 1859 the area now known as Cheesman Park was given to the people of Denver for use as a cemetery by an act of Congress (this location was located on an old Arapaho Indian burial ground) Will Larimer, who founded and laid out the first streets in Denver, named the place Mt. Prospect.

<>Over time different areas were designated for a variety of purposes. There was a burial place for the Grand Army of the Republic, the Odd Fellows, Society, Masons, Chinese and of course Potters field. It is the poor inhabitants of Potters field that is of most interest. The Potters field section was just behind a "hospital" that was commonly referred to as the "Pest house" this was that place that victims of small pox were quaranined & sick, elderly and invalids went to die. The building had a mass grave for the people who died at the location and it is in the approximate area of the community garden at the current Botanic Gardens.

The Roman Catholic section of the cemetery is now the area known as the Botanic gardens/Congress park. Mayor Bates sold 40 acres of land to the archdiocese, Father Machebeuf of the Roman Catholic church managed the purchase. The section was named Mount Calvary Cemetery and was eventually sold back to the city.

The Jewish section was known as the "Hebrew Burying and Prayer Ground" was purchased by the Hebrew Burial Society in 1875. The bodies from this section were removed in 1923, then it was leased back to the city "forever" and has been the location of a reservoir up to this time.

The Chinese section of the cemetery was given to a large population of Chinese who lived in the "Hop Alley" section of Denver. When the bodies were removed from this section it was used as a shrub nursery until 1930. Then it was annexed into being part of Congress park.

The present day Cheesman park was mostly the Protestant portion of the cemetery.

While all of this was taking place, the ownership of the land changed to John J Walley (A cabinet maker). He did not do anything to help the condition of the property. Meanwhile the public was attempting to shut down the cemetery because the area was not the beautiful garden/cemetery that the city wanted. It was discovered that the property was part of a land treaty that predated 1860, so the current owner had no legal right to the property. The U.S. sold the land to the city of Denver and Mayor Bates had the city pay a total of $200.00.

By another Act of Congress dated January 25th, 1890 the city was authorized to vacate this parcel of property known as Mt. Prospect Cemetery from a place of burial to a public park. In recognition of Congress doing this for the city, Senator Teller changed the parks name to Congress park. It was the responsibility of the living relatives to relocate the bodies of these dearly departed. However those interned at Potters field generally had no family or during the course of their lives participated in activities that guaranteed that none of the living would claim them as relatives. The city contracted undertaker E. P. McGovern to remove these bodies at a cost of $1.90 each and for them to be transported to Riverside Cemetery. This gruesome work began on March 14, 1893.

Mr. McGovern was using  caskets that were 1 foot wide by 3 1/2 feet long (Children's caskets). This was the only size casket available because of a Mining accident in Utah that had caused a shortage of Adult caskets. Because of this he  could not fit one body into a single casket, so he broke up most of the bodies to fit into the small caskets. This was a good deal for Mr. McGovern because he was being paid by the body moved. However there were discrepancies in the record keeping because of this and the records themselves being in such disorder. The health commissioner an investigation into the matter done and it was one of the final decisions to halt the removal of the bodies and seal the land. 

On March 19, 1893 the Denver Republican headline proclaimed "The Work of Ghouls". The article revealed that workman in charge of removing the bodies were breaking them into fragments and distributing the remains into "two and sometimes three of the boxes in which they are conveyed to the new burial site." The boxes provided by the undertaker were three feet six inches long. Due to the dry soil many of the bodies exhumed were rather well preserved. It must have been a gruesome site to witness intact remains being shattered and stuffed into these undersized boxes. The newsman described the scene; "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."

This horrible site was augmented by the exhumations of the Chinese graves. Work on these graves was funded and carried out by the local Chinese community. These were not professional undertakers. Bodies were removed from the ground, the bones were cleaned and wrapped for shipment to China. The fresher bodies were stripped of their tattered clothing and the decaying flesh scrapped from the bones.

As the Chinese bundled the bones for shipment to China for a proper burial in their native country, the unfortunate former tenants of potters field were not to be treated with the same respect. These poor souls were shipped to Riverside Cemetery. The plot of land purchased by the city for the reinternment was a plot of land located down by the Platte River. This was bottom land over the hill from the main cemetery known at that time as Poverty Flat. The March 20, 1893 article from the Denver Republican stated It (the new burial site) was not fit for anything. When the Platte is flooded the whole place is under water. This was later denied by the caretaker of the cemetery. They now state that the bodies were buried in a field to the south side of the land and that they still remain there today.

This is the area that the newspaper claimed the bodies were buried in Riverside Cemetery

This caused quite a controversy at the time. Mayor Rogers ordered all removal stopped. The city built a temporary wood fence around the park and it remained incomplete until 1902. Finally shrubs were planted and the holes filled in where coffins were removed and those that remained had collapsed. In her article Cemetery to conservatory, Louisa Ward Arps stated that this is a problem that still occasionally occurs. When the city was installing an automatic sprinkler system, bones and artifacts were unearthed.

In 1898 the architect and Civil Engineer, Reinhard Scheutze completed the plan for the layout of what is now Cheesman park. However he died before the park was completed. The final parts of the plan were added by S.R. DeBoer after Mr. Scheutzes' death.

The Catholic church kept their section of the land in great condition until 1950 when it was finally used as part of the park.

In 1907 the work was finished and the new park was opened. It was named in honor of Walter S. Cheesman (one of Denver's leaders)

In 1909 Gladys Cheesman-Evans, and her mother Mrs. Walter S Cheesman Donated the pavilion in memory of Mr. Cheesman ( A Denver Pioneer and Water Tycoon ). The Donation was dependent on the condition that the park be named after Mr. Cheesman, so the west section was named Cheesman Park.

the Catholic church removed the bodies that they had remaining in their section and sold the land that is now the Botanical Gardens/Congress park.

I t is rumored that somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 bodies still remain on the property to this day.

During the 1980's the Botanic Gardens was given a home on the property to use as their main office. This home is on the South East corner of the property. It was discovered that the foundation of the house ws shifting so they called in an engineering firm to see what could be done to stabilize the building. When the company came in and took core samples of the support dirt under the foundation they discovered that they had found a casket about 12 feet below in what appeared to be a vertical position. They decided that this was probably due to the bentonite in the area. A very porous clay. the slightest bit of water and it can make things glide around.

If ever a story existed that would excite paranormal activity this is surely at the top of the list. It has been reported that if one goes to the park on certain moonlit nights that all the grave outlines can be identified. Some people have claimed that while reclining on the lawn they have found it very difficult to get up, as if some unseen forces are restraining them.