In a state with its fair share of abandoned towns and byways, victims of the historic boom and bust cycle and the transience of Western expansion, a disused gravesite in Colorado is not a rarity.

Rather than being left behind geographically, though, the Pauper’s Cemetery in Colorado Springs has been left behind in memory and interest by the growing area.

Clinging to the top of a hill near a busy 21st Street intersection and the entrance of Bear Creek Regional Park, the little cemetery is an unassuming landmark that holds the last visual reminder of the county’s history in providing for the most vulnerable.

“I just feel like it is a spot that is commonly overlooked, but the people who are buried there are just as important as the people buried at Evergreen or Fairview cemeteries,” said Old Colorado City Historical Society archivist Amanda Long.

A place to go

Seven little headstones — chipped and anonymous — are the only indicators of who might be buried there. Set on a sliver of private property next to El Paso County park land, the site is not well-maintained. A few faded plastic flowers mark graves among overgrown tufts of grass.

The burials are of former residents of the El Paso County Poor Farm, which operated from 1880 to the early 1970s. The brainchild of County Commissioner and then Colorado Springs Mayor Matt France, the enterprise started from a two-story house on El Paso Street until the turn of the 20th century.

When the poor farm needed to expand, public sentiment drove it west of the burgeoning city onto a 525-acre existing ranch.

“There were a lot of people that didn’t want that happening close to them, so they took that bit of land far away from town,” said Long.

In an age before Social security, workers’ compensation and other social safety nets, poor houses and the rural offshoot poor farms were an imperfect solution in place across the country. The El Paso County Poor House would take on indebted people deemed to need long-term care, including the sick, the elderly and children.

The institution strived for self-sufficiency through farm operations. The poor farm did not operate as a long-term debtor’s prison, though people were given short sentences there for petty crimes. In the early 1900s, the county built a hospital wing capable of housing tuberculosis patients who flocked to the climate and waters of the Colorado Springs area. It also contained a “pest house” to quarantine victims of contagious diseases like smallpox.

“There were so many people coming out west for so many different reasons, and a lot of them didn’t make it,” said Long. “There were places like that to give them a place to go.”

Other institutions were opening around the same time, serving adjacent but similar purposes. The closed, and soon to be redeveloped, Union Printers Home housed aged or infirm members of a trade organization. The still-existing Myron Stratton Home, dictated in the will of business tycoon Winfred Scott Stratton, became a home for the elderly and, until the advent of the U.S. foster care system, an orphanage.

Long said the poor farm and other local institutions were part of a surprisingly charitable social welfare system for a Western settlement at the beginning of the 20th century. In her research, Long said she was unable to find records of abuse or unjustly long stays at the poor farm, and the people committed there were “treated with respect.”

“When you hear stories from El Paso County, it’s refreshing that people loved living in these places and enjoyed it,” she said.

Henry Parks’ final resting place

The current resting place of the seven people buried at the Pauper’s Cemetery is not their first.

In 1957, The Gazette reported the discovery and removal of seven graves during a project to widen 21st Street. Only one person could be identified by name out of the burials at the time, thanks to an old record book.

Henry Parks, a 46-year-old man from Arkansas who lived at the farm from 1899 to 1900, died as a result of an epileptic seizure. An article from the Colorado Springs Evening Telegraph on Jan. 22, 1900, said that Parks, who was Black, was briefly blamed for a fire that destroyed the original poor-farm building. He was later found to have been camping far away.

A small Colorado Springs Gazette Sun obituary from Nov. 11, 1900, reads that Parks was “well known to a great many people.”

Long said she spoke with a person whose husband worked as a surveyor on the project to widen the street where the remains were found. She shared photos that show workers handling the bones of the dead as they dug up the burials, transferred them into new coffins, and reburied them farther from the road where they now lay. The bodies remained anonymous, since the aforementioned fire destroyed most of the poor farm’s original records.

“So like, is one of those people Henry?” said Long.

The graves received attention when they were discovered during the construction process, but Long suspects there are other anonymous burials connected with the poor farm “all over the place” around Bear Creek Regional Park. She said one historical society volunteer has reported finding other headstone remnants in the area, as well as artifacts such as pottery that wash down the nearby creek.

“That little section of what we call now the little pauper’s field with seven headstones very much could have been a lot bigger,” she said.

Shared work and worship

Lichen dots the cracking headstones of the Pauper’s Cemetery, and the wooden fence is weathered.

Who looks out for Parks’ remains and those of the others now is murky. The listed landowner is a 95-year-old man who could not be reached for comment. In the past, the cemetery was maintained by an elderly couple, but Long was unsure if anyone was still taking on the responsibility. El Paso County Parks and Recreation confirmed it was not.

The poor farm was closed in the 1970s, sparking a multi-year debate on what to do with the land and buildings. Though the institution had ramped down from its operation as a full-time residence, the loss of the poor farm had repercussions on the surrounding community.

Westside CARES, an interfaith nonprofit, credits a Thanksgiving get-together at the Bethany Lutheran Church of west-side churches attempting to fill the new void in care as the impetus for the organization’s founding.

“The shared work and worship filled a need among those who participated, and they decided to form a more permanent relationship,” says the Westside CARES website.

Archived material from the time suggests not everyone was on board with the slow decline and closure. A 1982 editorial cartoon published in The Gazette showed curly mustached villain in a cape and top hat putting a “for sale” sign on the poor farm sign.

“But they can’t pay the rent!” he says to an onlooker.

The buildings were demolished in 1984, making way for the Bear Creek Regional Park “despite the efforts of history preservers,” according to Long. The Charmaine Nymann Community Garden is roughly where the main building once stood.

The stark little cemetery is a reminder of people who lived difficult lives and died anonymous deaths over a century ago.

“It’s a special little place to see and reminisce about the west side’s past, Colorado Springs’ past,” said Long.