Alexander Joseph, Gilpin County. It is a fact that we stand atop history but are rarely aware of that which lies beneath our feet. This history, which we only pass by with barely a thought, lies all around us. These lives, and loves, and losses, and ruin, only appear as rusted out mining machines and carvings in aspen trees which are discernible only as carvings, no longer as names or words or stories. The philosopher Hegel famously said, “We have learned from history that we don’t learn from history.” Maybe in opposition to this quote, this week in The Mountain-Ear we can learn a bit from history in the form of this article about a place where dead from these bygone eras lie. And there may be nothing better than a cemetery to be our teacher during these times. 

The specific cemetery in mind is Dory Hill Cemetery, located across the street from the Gilpin County Justice Center and across the highway from the softball fields; the seeming epitome of another piece of history hidden in plain sight. It seems the problem with the past is that it is inherently and irrevocably passed and that at a certain point there is nobody left alive or even related to those who were alive to tell the tales of those times. Although there is not much known, we do know that around 1859 the Dory Hill site was first set aside by the city of Black Hawk. 

At the time of the setting aside of this area, the hillsides were barren of trees thanks to deforestation based on mining needs. Today there are many aspens groves around the property and there are dozens of graves sprinkled beneath these trees. 

At first, the cemetery was populated with original wooden headstones worn into illegibility by fire and mountain winters. Many of the first laid to rest beneath these wooden headstones were victims of the 1879 diphtheria pandemic which ravaged the mountain community, specifically many local children and infants. Due to the inaccessibility of and high price of materials for gravestones, for the first seventy years of operations, there were many people buried in unmarked graves. To commemorate these early pioneers, in 1937, the city of Black Hawk placed a quartz monument (which still stands tall and at the entrance to the cemetery). Part of the inscription of which reads “Dory Hill Cemetery, Elevation 9200, 1860-1937 ... This monument, a memorial to pioneers, old soldiers, departed relatives and friends resting in unmarked graves.” 

Beside the quartz monument, inscribed on a stone and paid for by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and placed in 2019, commemorates all of those from this community who have given their lives in service of the country. Thus, like the rest of the cemetery, the first things seen, are two markers of commemoration placed nearly two hundred years apart but with the same purpose, to commemorate those who have come before us. 

Today in this still active cemetery, there are graves so worn that they look like out of place mountain rocks as opposed to markers of graves and other headstones, and small mausoleums, which look brand new and very modern. Yet they all lay equal in the shadow of the Rockies and under ankle deep snow. 

Despite the separation in time all of those buried at Dory Hill, as well as those of us still up and walking about, we all can feel as one in that we share a love for the mountains and the fresh air. And we can look back and remember that we are all part of a line of those who have tried to live our lives in support of and in community with those who have chosen this rural, high alpine life. Hopefully for many years after some of us are in Dory Hill, there will be those who continue our mountain living traditions and honor those who came before. 

The Dory Hill cemetery is located between 1000 and 3057 Dory Hill Road, Black Hawk, Colorado. 

(Originally published in the January 14, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)