Charles A. Stansfield Jr. - Haunted Colorado: Ghosts & Strange Phenomena of the Centennial State

STACKPOLE
BOOKS

To my nearest and dearest
Diane, Wayne, Paul, Beth, Jordan, Aidan
and Brycewith all my love

Copyright 2011 by Stackpole Books

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Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FIRST EDITION

Cover design by Tessa J. Sweigert

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stansfield, Charles A.

Haunted Colorado : ghosts and strange phenomena of the centennial state /

Charles A. Stansfield, Jr. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8117-4493-5

ISBN-10: 0-8117-0855-1 (pbk.)

1. GhostsColorado. 2. Haunted placesColorado. I. Title.

BF1472.U6.S724 2011

133.109788dc22

2011016351

THE WORLD CAN BE A SCARY PLACE, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT you are a firm believer in things supernatural. Daily television program listings show a popular fascination with ghosts, demons, witches, vampires, and monsters of all descriptions. Do we want to be scared? Do we enjoy a bit of terror while in the comfortable security of our own homes?

Are you a true believer in the supernatural or a confirmed skeptic, secure in your rational conviction that there is not such a phenomenon as ghosts? Partisans of both of these extremes may together add up to a numerical majority, with the balance of the population open-minded skepticsthose who believe that ghosts probably dont exist, but that it would be interesting if they did.

Whether skeptic, believer, or unconvinced but open-minded, all can enjoy a good story. Tales of the supernatural are not only entertaining; they might provide an avenue to explore our deep feelings about such weighty topics as the nature of life and death. We need to ponder such basic concerns in ways that mask the profoundly emotional nature of the topics. We need to keep our cool, at least outwardly.

Consider how the celebration of Halloween has changed in the last few decades. The original pagan festival of the dead, known as All Hallows Eve, marked the end of the harvest season and the onset of winter. The veil of mystery that separates the worlds of the living and the dead was believed to be at its most transparent at this time. Communication between the living and dead became much easier, and on the eve of the holiday, the spirits of the dead roamed the land of the living. The ancient Celts, and their modern spiritual descendants, believed that the devil and witches could most effectively exercise their special powers on All Hallows Eve.

By the early twentieth century, much of the serious nature of the holiday had disappeared under a party atmosphere. It became essentially a kids holiday, an excuse to dress up in costumes and gorge on candy for one evening. Now, it has been transformed into an occasion for decorating houses and lawns. Fake tombstones with witty epitaphs sprout from suburban lawns. Imitation cobwebs and miniature ghosts festoon trees. Perhaps the gentle mocking of death on Halloween acts as a safety valve to diminish our fears about death. We can reduce the fearsome mysteries surrounding death by dressing up as ghosts.

Interest in the supernatural is universal across both space and time. Every human society that now exists or has ever existed has traditions of ghosts, witches, demons, and monsters. Sometimes the details of these stories are amazingly similar. For example, as fans of Dracula movies know, Eastern European tales about vampires feature what is known as shape-shifting. Allegedly, vampires can transform themselves from human form into wolves or bats. More than seven thousand miles away, Americas largest tribe, the Navajo, believe that witches can morph from human form into wolves or owls. Can it be pure coincidence that people so far apart and so different in cultures, religions, and languages just happen to have almost identical ancient legends?

Belief in witchcraft was so strong in Europe four and five centuries ago that scores of thousands of people were either hanged or burned alive for being convicted of witchcraft. In England alone, thirty thousand people were executed because their neighbors thought they were witches. Housecats were thought to be familiars, the feline henchmen of human witches. In an orgy of senseless violence, hundreds of thousands of cats were killed throughout Europe. Ironically, this led to a huge expansion of the rat populationrats that helped spread the dreaded Black Death, or bubonic plague.

Many people who would firmly deny a belief in witchcraft nonetheless have superstitions that influence their thinking and behavior. For example, many believe that they have lucky numbers. There are those who customarily wear a lucky item of clothing or jewelry. If you believe in luck, then you believe that unseen forces of good or evil can shape events or direct our lives, at least to some degree.

Whether or not you believe in ghosts and other supernatural phenomena, you can still be intrigued, entertained, amused, and yes, frightened by such stories. You are about to discover Colorados dark side, its hidden world of ghosts, demons, witches, and monsters.

Many ghosts are historic in one of several senses. They may be the product of a famous incident or disaster, such as a frontier massacre. Some apparitions appear to be the phantoms of famous or infamous Colorado residents from the past, including the ghosts of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, movie star Douglas Fairbanks, boxer Jack Dempsey, and Titanic survivor Molly Brown. The spirit of Buffalo Bill also makes an appearance.

The ghosts are geographic, in two senses. Many phantoms reflect the cultural, economic, and physical geography of Colorado. Many ghost stories set in the Rocky Mountains, for example, feature gold miners, mining towns, and famous resort hotels. Most ghosts are highly territorial. Their haunts are often tightly circumscribeda room in a building, a corner of a basement, and so on.

The stories have been grouped into five general regions: Metropolitan Denver, Northern Plains, Rocky Mountains, Southern Plains, and Western Plateaus and Deserts. Enjoy your tour of the spooky side of the Centennial State. Keep the doors locked and the lights on. Nobody knows for sure if all, or any, of these stories are true.

THE METROPOLITAN DENVER AREA IS THE SMALLEST OF THE FIVE REGIONS of Colorado in area, but the largest in population. This region centers on the state capital and largest city and includes the area from Broomfield and Brighton in the north to Aurora and Centennial to the south.

In this compact region, you will encounter the spirits of Buffalo Bill and the Unsinkable Molly Brown. There is also a young woman who suspects that her pet fish might be psychic and twins who discover they have a supernatural bond. Saddest of all is the ghost in a hotel grieving about her future husbands tragic end.