GC24258Deadman's Canyon
Type: Traditional
| Size: Small
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By: Wanderlust!@
| Hide Date: 02/16/2010
| Status: Available
Country: United States
| State: Colorado Coordinates: N38° 40.264 W104° 51.503 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
Cache contains small toys for trade. Located at a grave site.Located along Hwy. 115 on the east side from Calle Del Fuente Rd. It is a lone grave. Henry Hawkins was murdered here in 1863 on March 19th.
There is plenty of room to park on the shoulder of the road. Take a small hike up the hill to the grave site.
"The Harkens grave is located on the east side of Highway 115, about 5.8 miles south of the main entrance to Fort Carson, southwest of Colorado Springs. Visible from the road, it is ringed by a white fence set on a small rise and crowded by scrub oak. According to GPS-derived geolocation (accurate to within 10 meters), the memorial's coordinates are latitude 38 40 16.3 N and longitude 104 51 30.2 W. The original marker has been embedded in a larger tombstone-shaped concrete marker. Faint lines from the original inscription are visible but not genuinely legible on the lichen-covered stone. In 1939, the Colorado Springs Gazette published an interview with Henry Priest, who was a boy when he helped bury the murdered Henry Harkens (January 22, section 2, page 8). Harkens was about 55 when he moved to what later came to be known as Deadman Canyon. Priest had previously known him in Buckskin, Colo. Harkens and his partnersûAlden Bassett, McPherson, and Juddûhad bought a sawmill in Ca±on City and were moving it to the canyon. Harkens was building a cabin there, and he welcomed the Priest family when they moved nearby on March 12, 1863. On March 19, 1863, Harkens worked all day on his cabin. As he was preparing supper, the two Espinoza brothers, Mexican bandits who were terrorizing the region, attacked and killed him. McPherson and Bassett discovered the body later that evening. Fearing the unknown murderer or murderers still around, they took refuge with the Priest family that night. The next day the murder was reported and 25 local men gathered to survey the scene and bury the body. "We chose a spot on a little knoll under a sheltering pine tree," Priest reported. "And on a rough headstone we carved the words: æHenry Harkens, Murdered Wednesday Eve, March 19, 1863.'" (March 19, 1863, was a Thursday.) The bandits were eventually tracked to Espinosa Peak, near Cripple Creek. The older one was killed, but the younger brother escaped. In addition to Harkens's glasses and personal items from other victims, the elder brother was said to have had a document on his person pledging to kill 600 whites in revenge for the loss of their money and property during the Mexican war. The younger Espinosa reportedly returned to Mexico, recruited a 12-year-old nephew, and returned to his quest. Both were killed near Fort Garland, Colo., by a marksman who received reward money put up by the state."
(Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project )
More on the story: http://joliegallagher.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/dead-mans-canyon/
07/04/2019 By jkincolorado So interesting to learn this history by this cache! The State Patrol stopped behind our car and yelled up to us asking if we were ok - thought that was nice :)
06/28/2019 By downforce22 Cool spot that I had driven by many times until I heard of Henry Harkins' Grave... I left a dime so he wouldn't haunt my dreams. There is an account in 'Ghosts of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak' and this below as detailed by Jolie Anderson Gallagher on her website.
"In the gulch below Highway 115, the pioneer Henry Harkens (or Harkins) abandoned the gold diggings and agreed to establish a sawmill with his friend Murdock McPherson. Harkens made good progress on constructing a little cabin along the creek, a quiet spot where they would live next to the sawmill. One afternoon, McPherson and another employee named Bassett decided to quit work and take a walk down the canyon. Harkens, whom everyone fondly called “Uncle Henry,” stayed behind to get supper started. He strolled out the door in the fading afternoon light. Not six feet from his cabin door, before he could grab an axe to chop wood, he looked up at the sound of hoof beats. Two riders approached, with pistols drawn.
A mile down the canyon, a young Henry Priest helped his father build a road. In 1863, they were building the first path through the canyon of majestic pines. They stopped to visit with McPherson and Bassett, and discussed their progress on the road to the sawmill. As darkness descended, the Priests returned to their cabin for supper, while McPherson and Bassett turned back up the canyon for their own meal. Not long after, just as the Priest family sat down at the table, their door crashed open. It was McPherson and Bassett, gasping for breath and barely able to choke out the words. Harkens had been murdered, they said, and their cabin had been ransacked. But they saw no one. Now thoroughly frightened, they all imagined the worst – Indians on the war path or Confederate guerrillas invading the gold fields.
The men carried Uncle Henry up the knoll and dug a hole, which they lined with logs and pine boughs. There they buried him under the shade of a pine tree. On a rough headstone, they carved the words: “Henry Harkens, Murdered Wednesday Eve., March 19th, 1863.” (The original grave was moved to its current location in 1965, to make way for highway construction.) While the men dug the grave, Henry Priest hiked to the top of the hill to stand guard. Eventually a sheriff and deputy from Hardscrabble arrived. They were following a trail of murderers who killed a blacksmith without cause.
Word got back to the posse. They pursued the two Mexicans towards Canon City and discovered their camp along Four Mile Creek. Surrounding them, the posse fired upon the unsuspecting men. One fell. The other fled down a ravine and escaped. Back at the camp, the posse rifled through the killers’ possessions and found stolen loot from murder victims, including gold-rimmed glasses that belonged to Harkens. They also found a memo book with several pages containing Spanish writing. Addressed to the governor, the pages described their plans for killing Americans. They also revealed their identity, the Espinosas. Authorities knew about these wanted outlaws, Felipe and Vivian Espinosa. Vivian lay dead at their feet, but Felipe had slipped out of their reach.
By that fall of 1863, the “Bloody Espinosas” claimed to have killed 32 white men – all unsuspecting miners, ranchers, and travelers. Like Henry Harkens, many were shot, axed and mutilated.
Henry Priest said of Uncle Henry, “He was one of the best and kindest of men, always ready to help anyone in trouble, and loved by all who knew him.”
Deadman's Canyon
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