Editor’s note: This July, as Colorado Springs gears up for its 150th birthday on the 31st, The Gazette has prepared a series of articles on the history of our city. Check back for fascinating glimpses into the people and events that have shaped Colorado Springs into the landmark it is today. 

From the earliest days of a developing Colorado Springs more than 150 years ago, small sites around the area were used for burial locations.

But the most noticeable cemetery, with an acre for 200-300 graves, was openly visible to people arriving at the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Depot near what would become downtown.

That was a bit of problem for what city founder Brig. Gen. William Jackson Palmer envisioned as a “Little London,” a quite sophisticated resort area with elegant homes, broad tree-lined streets and amenities.

Historians Manly and Eleanor Ormes, in “The Book of Colorado Springs,” surmised there was something startling about those early gravesites: “To come to a place which had been made widely known as one of the healthiest spots in the world, and to behold a graveyard with about as many graves in it as there were people in the town, was a grim surprise!”

In the early 1870s Palmer’s Colorado Springs Company had everything moved farther away to its land already set aside on a bluff east of the planned city. It was called Mt. Washington Cemetery and the Mountain Home Cemetery, and in 1877 renamed Evergreen Cemetery by the City Council.

Evergreen Cemetery was deeded by Palmer to the city of Colorado Springs in 1875-76. An endowment fund was developed for care of what was to become a beautiful park-like setting.

Irrigation for the cemetery was from the El Paso Canal, which ran from Fountain Creek to the west of the original Colorado City through north Colorado Springs areas and then east to what would become Prospect Lake and Evergreen. Trees were planted on the semi-arid land.

Beauty filled the cemetery in the early 1900s when families decorated graves with rose-covered trellises, and Ripley’s Believe It or Not named Evergreen “the largest outdoor rose garden in the world.” Over the years, when there were no families surviving or they had moved away, volunteers adopted a number of the trellises.

In 1903 the Sons of Israel Association created an Orthodox Jewish cemetery attached to Evergreen on the south, maintained through endowments. It became the property of Temple Shalom.

Those who died and were unidentified or “without means of support” were buried in Evergreen’s potter’s or pauper’s field. Many have headstones from the will of early-day philanthropist and the first area mining millionaire Winfield Scott Stratton, who is buried at Evergreen as well.

A stone chapel for funerals was built near Evergreen’s entrance in 1909.

Over the years Evergreen Cemetery grew from 39 acres to 220 acres, and more than 90,000 are buried there. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

The number of city notables and early-day pioneers in their final resting places in Evergreen Cemetery fills local-history books. Leading the list in a simple, pastoral plot is the man who made the cemetery, and indeed the city, possible, Brig. Gen. William Jackson Palmer. Marking the graves of the quiet Quaker and his wife, Queen, are simple granite boulders from his beloved mountains to the west. Palmer died in 1909.

Throughout the many acres are mausoleums, statues and sculptures, a number of them pieces of art, many with loving memories, others even ostentatious. Many headstones carry the names of families and individuals who made Colorado Springs what it is.

William Sharpless Jackson was a Quaker friend from Pennsylvania recruited by Palmer to build the railroad in the new city, even rescuing the railroad from bankruptcy. A widower, his second wife was the beloved Helen Hunt Jackson, author of “Ramona” and “Century of Dishonor.” They are buried in a family plot atop a hill with clear sight to Cheyenne Mountain. She had first been buried near Helen Hunt Falls in North Cheyenne Cañon but was moved when her grave became a tourist attraction.

One majestic mausoleum carries the Burns family name of James Ferguson “Jimmie” Burns. Successful during the Cripple Creek mining years, he built a mansion on Wood Avenue’s Millionaire’s Row. Using his mining millions, he turned to a gentleman’s life and the arts, building his own theater when the owner of the only theater in town wouldn’t rent it to him for a party. The Burns Theater later became the Chief Theater.

J. Don Alexander and his brother were famous for their Alexander Film Company, considered the largest advertising film company in the world. A pilot, he built the Alexander Eaglerock biplane that was given a strong endorsement in 1927 by aviator Charles Lindbergh. Alexander’s ashes were buried with family in Evergreen Cemetery, moved there after 15 years inside Alexander Film Company.

Artus Van Briggle’s matte-finish pottery in Colorado colors with glaze from the Ming Dynasty and, often, Colorado wildflower designs, is coveted worldwide. The road to artistic acclaim for the struggling artist got a financial boost from backers including Brig. Gen. Palmer, one of the stockholders for Van Briggle Pottery. The year he died of ill health, 1904, his works shown at the St. Louis World’s Fair were draped in black. Van Briggle’s grave at Evergreen was unmarked until 1966 when an anonymous donor paid for a red granite stone with the memorial words, “Whosoever loveth the labor of his work, the Gods have called.”

Robert Miller “Bob” Womack is buried here. He’s the one who first struck the gold mother lode in Cripple Creek. Others went on to become millionaires; he died in poverty. Faulty business decisions and then his sister-in-law had made unsubstantiated accusations that William, her husband and Bob’s brother, had been the one to start the gold rush. The two parts of the family are buried separately at Evergreen.

Row after row, name after name, Evergreen Cemetery is fascinating history gold.

There’s the Tutt family, who have been community builders and philanthropists since the 1800s. Medal of Honor recipient Floyd Lindstrom is here. Artist and photographer Laura Gilpin, who Ansel Adams called “our First Lady of the Lens,” rests here with her mother and little brother. Sachs and Giddings family names are on downtown buildings. There are the ranching Pinello family members and the Vallejo restaurant family.

So many thousands of memories and stories make up the peaceful world of Brig. Gen. Palmer’s Evergreen Cemetery.

TIMELINE

1875-76: City founder Brig. Gen. William Jackson Palmer’s Colorado Springs Company deeds land for a city cemetery to the city.

1877: The City Council names the cemetery Evergreen.

Early to mid 1900s: The hundreds of rose trellises at Evergreen grave sites are named by Ripley’s Believe it or Not “the largest outdoor rose garden in the world.”

1993: Evergreen Cemetery is named to the National Register of Historic Places.

Brig. Gen. William Jackson Palmer’s memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs. An endowment fund was developed for care of what was to become a beautiful parklike setting. The cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. (

Brig. Gen. William Jackson Palmer’s memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs. An endowment fund was developed for care of what was to become a beautiful parklike setting. The cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.)

Headstones at the Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs on Friday, July 2, 2021. Evergreen Cemetery was deeded by city founder Brig. Gen. William Jackson Palmer to the city of Colorado Springs in 1875-76. More than 90,000 people are buried at the cemetery that spans 220 acres. (

Headstones at the Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs on Friday, July 2.)

Eric Devault, outgoing Post Commander of American Legion Colorado Springs Post 5, places American flags next to the graves of soldiers and past members of the American Legion of plot 5 at Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs on Friday, May 28, 2021. The American Legion PFC Floyd K Lindstrom Post 5 members placed flags on the graves of soldiers and met with the Sons of the American Revolution to place a commemorative wreath and toast to Lindstrom, the World War II Silver Star, Medal of Honor, and Purple Heart recipient. (

Eric Devault, outgoing Post Commander of American Legion Colorado Springs Post 5, places American flags next to the graves of soldiers and past members of the American Legion of plot 5 at Evergreen Cemetery May 28.)