An eclectic group of more than 20 history buffs, local government officials and supportive friends of Linda Allred and Steve Plutt gathered on a grassy knoll above the second hole of The Shining Mountain Golf Course Oct. 18.

The occasion? Unveiling the restored Templeton Cemetery, also known as the Pioneer Cemetery, where the remains of between 20 to 50 homesteaders from the region were buried in the years following the establishment of the cemetery in the 1870s, historical records show.

Over the past two years, Allred, vice chair of the City of Woodland Park’s Preservation Committee and Plutt, a local historian, spent time piecing together the history and headstones of the cemetery.

History and headstones such as that of Andrew Jackson Templeton, the cemetery’s namesake.

Templeton, a soldier in the Mexican-American War and an unsuccessful miner, herded cattle in the area and owned a ranch in El Paso County at what is now called Templeton Gap in Colorado Springs. He and his family homesteaded north of Woodland Park.

Staining his story, however, was his willing participation in helping lead the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre.

“Templeton is part of both our National and State history,” Plutt wrote in a research paper about Templeton, “He should not be forgotten.”

Whether seen as a victor or villain, Plutt insists Templeton’s story and others like it must be preserved.

That’s why the Plutt and Allred spent more than 250 hours restoring the cemetery with funding from the Ute Pass Saddle Club, and expertise from the Colorado School of Mines Geophysics Department to conduct ground penetrating radar on the area, which confirmed the existence of at least 18-20 burial sites.

“It looked a lot different when we started,” Allred said.

The trimmed native grasses, neatly placed grave markers and landscaped burial plots were all but a vision as overgrown thistles and clods of dirt swallowed the two broken remaining headstones propped against two original wooden posts—the last clues to an all but forgotten pioneer burial ground.

That’s why Plutt and Allred aim to jog the collective memory.

With restoration completed, they now seek to get the site recognized by the National Register of Historic Places and designate the site with a historic marker and sign.

“The main goal was to get the word out, that this is a cemetery and it’s been here,” Plutt said. “It needs to be recognized so these pioneers aren’t lost to time.”

The property is now under city ownership after a deal to purchase 360 acres of land that encompasses the cemetery was finalized.