CENTRAL CITY — Delays due to weather did not dampen spirits during the 37th annual Cemetery Crawl on August 22, 2026. Once the rain cleared, the Gilpin Historical Society did not keep the dead waiting, or the more than 200 people who came to crawl around Bald Mountain Cemetery.

Tales of a bygone era filled the forested grounds west of Central City, accompanied by notes from a guitar, and the amused giggles of the crawlers.

Each year, the Gilpin Historical Society chooses a different one of Gilpin County's 11 cemeteries for the event. Local actors and history buffs take their places among the headstones and bring some of the county's former residents back to life for a few hours.

Emma Berg opened her enactment as Agnes Gates, with a life story that stretched from Denver theaters to Central City's Glory Hole Saloon.

Emma Berg enacts Agnes Gates beside the Gates family grave. Gates was a writer, pianist, and one of the founders of the Gilpin County Historical Society.

Photo by Mindy Leary

During her interpretation, Berg also pointed out that the rather bodacious backside featured on the Gilpin Historical Society’s logo belongs to the Glory Hole saloonkeeper, Emmy Wilson.

Gates studied music and writing at the University of Denver and played piano in theaters before pursuing a writing career. She published short stories and later wrote western romances with her second husband, western author Raymond Nafziger.

After Nafziger's death, Gates played piano at Emmy Wilson's Glory Hole Saloon in Central City. 

In 1947, she became one of the founders of the Gilpin County Historical Society and later helped get the Gilpin History Museum up and running. She served as the society's secretary until 1984.

Her third husband, Frank Gates, was technical director for the Central City Opera Association. According to the story, Frank had a habit of borrowing household belongings for opera props, sometimes to Agnes' dismay.

One treasured cloisonné matchbox nearly became a prop in The Barber of Seville before Frank apparently thought better of sending it flying across the stage.

Agnes Gates died in 1993 at age 93. Her story ended with Berg's reminder of the large family Gates left behind, including 16 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

Other stops carried guests much further back into Gilpin County's mining days.

Ryan Graham portrayed John Bartle, a native of Cornwall, England, who came west during the gold rush. Bartle and his brother Isaac went into business together in Nevadaville, operating a general store and post office.

When a massive fire (reportedly started in a Chinese laundry) tore through Nevadaville in 1887, the Bartells were among those who suffered heavy losses. Insurance money helped them rebuild, with a two-story brick building on what became known as the Bartell Block.

The area's mining history was a recurring theme in the ghosts' stories.

One character described miners crawling into cramped holes with candles strapped to their heads, swinging picks in hopes of finding gold. 

Another recalled a time when a sheriff might play cards with a wanted man for an hour before casually handing him an arrest warrant.

In another tale, stolen mining drills were returned without an arrest after the sheriff sent word that they had better appear on his back porch by morning. They did.

Jennie Johnson's story centered on the Reverend John Stokes and the hard life of a traveling Methodist minister and his family.

Jennie Johnson embodies Lizzie, the daughter of Reverend John Stokes, whose family followed him during his years as a traveling Methodist minister.

Photo by Mindy Leary

Stokes rode preaching circuits before coming to Black Hawk in the 1880s, where he helped build up the local Methodist church and Sunday school. Residents raised money for his headstone after his death in 1886.

Mike Keeler portrayed Oscar Williams, who served 24 years as Gilpin County sheriff and was known for handling trouble without gunfire, once saying he never had to kill anyone during his long career.

A holstered pistol completes Mike Keeler’s costume as Sheriff Oscar Williams, who said he never had to kill anyone during his 24-year term that began in the 1920s.

Photo by Mindy Leary

Chuck Roberts brought some music to the cemetery while telling the story of Burton Seymour.

Seymour came west from Ashtabula, Ohio, during the gold rush era. Like many others, his family made the journey by ox cart. He eventually settled in the Nevadaville and Central City area, worked in mining and business, served as mayor, and played music.

Roberts even pulled out a guitar to help tell the story, sending music across the damp cemetery grounds.

His enactment also demonstrated how easily pieces of Gilpin County's history can disappear. Some graves no longer have markers because of vandalism, theft, and the passage of time. But records still show who rests beneath the ground.

"Some things get lost over time," Roberts told the crowd. "But we still tell these stories so that we can keep the history alive."

Chuck Roberts presents Burton H. Seymour, a miner, businessman, musician, and former Central City mayor. Roberts added music about Seymour’s birthplace, Ashtabula, Ohio.

Photo by Mindy Leary

That is, after all, the point of the Cemetery Crawl.

The stones at Bald Mountain may be weathered, broken, missing, or nearly swallowed by the forest, but for one rainy Saturday in August, the people beneath them had voices again.

Proceeds from the Cemetery Crawl benefit the Gilpin Historical Society. Its next major fundraiser is the 17th annual Creepy Crawl, scheduled for October 16, 17, 23, and 24. Organizers said the October event is their biggest and brings more than 700 people. More information can be found at gilpinhistory.org.