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GC1YTHK
Colorado Spirit Quest #239 - Mt OlivetType: Traditional | Size: Micro 
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| Terrain:  By: Grand High Pobah @ | Hide Date: 09/17/2009 | Status: Available Country: United States | State: Colorado Coordinates: N39° 46.684 W105° 08.763 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 4 
 A view Entrance Reed mausoleum 
!! Exciting New Cache Series!!
“COLORADO SPIRIT QUEST” The Colorado Spirit Quest is a series of Caches placed by many individuals, near cemeteries and historic sites in hopes of paying respect to the many pioneer ancestors that have ‘walked’ before us. There are hundreds of cemeteries in the rural and mountain communities across Colorado. This series will introduce you to many of them. The cache pages will provide a virtual history tour of the cemeteries and tombstones. COLORADO SPIRIT QUEST is not affiliated with any other ‘Spirit Quest’ group. Special thanks and credit are given to SixDogTeam who started the Indiana Spirit Quest in 2004. The idea has rapidly spread into many states. The CSQ endeavor is an enormous and relentless task. It cannot be accomplished by just one or two people. This project will only flourish if there is a multitude of volunteer cachers willing to place these caches. After locating the cache container, take some time to reflect back on the lives of those pioneers and the effort it took to make Colorado such a great state. If you are interested in joining the “Walking Through History Clan” contact may be made by sending an e-mail to the owner of “Colorado Spirit Quest #1 – Mo untain Passage”. Use the ‘Send Message” link at the center of the page of their profile. Each person that places a CSQ cache is responsible for its maintenance. REMEMBER: If you are APPREHENSIVE about cemeteries – AVOID this series. Thanks to Clan Members: Greasepot, Taylorgeotracker, Ivy Dog Parents, Team Boogity3, Grand High Pobah, Boborr 80909, Imusttravel2000, Buzz Lightyear I, Sandhill 49er, MrVolkswagen, Isisfan, LadyCoots, Rockymtn8iv, Fork-L-Man, *Sparky*, TwoCs, Outdrlvr201, Condor1, 2Cachedivers, arthurat, smilz787, Kyotmoon, Mountain Roamer, SugarPug, Team Tiger Pride, ernie66, drnetwork, Team w-bar-v and Dynamite Rabbit. New Clan members are always Welcome * * * * * * * * The cache is a 35mm micro. There is no need to enter the cemetery to find the cache. Mt Olivet is one of the largest cemeteries in the Denver area with more than 130,000 occupants. It was established in 1892. Some of the occupants of the Denver catholic cemetery used prior to that time, Mount Calvary located where the Botanic Garden is now, were moved here shortly thereafter and that cemetery taken out of operation. The remaining 8,600 occupants of Mount Calvary were transferred to Mt Olivet in 1950 for reburial. There is one piece of truly exceptional architecture here in the form of the very ornate Reed mausoleum. Made of white marble, it was shipped from Italy in 1923 at a cost of $250,000. A number of famous, or perhaps infamous people, reside here. Jack Swigert, the Command module pilot for Apollo 13 who uttered the phrase "Houston, we have a problem", is here. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 but passed away before taking office. A number of political leaders are buried here. Even Bozo the Clown is buried here. My favorite person here is Baby Doe Tabor. For those of you not totally aware of the Tabor legend, I will recount the pertinent parts. Horace Tabor was a store keeper in Leadville during the mining boom and he grubstaked a couple of miners who hit it big. Grubstaking was a practice where a store keeper or another party would provide equipment and provisions to miners for a share of anything that they found. As it turned out, these miners found the Little Pittsburg Mine and Horace bought out their shares. Horace became fabulously wealthy while aquiring other rich properties including the Matchless Mine. At one point the Matchless was turning out $10,000 a day in silver ore. And those are 1870 dollars! Apparently all this wealth did not sit well with Horace's wife, Augusta. Horace built the Leadville opera house and got himself elected town mayor. Things were going well. About this time Baby Doe appeared on the scene and Horace decided that a cute young thing that liked to spend money and enjoy the good life was more to his liking than Augusta was. One way or another, Augusta found herself on the receiving end of a divorce, Horace found himself as a senator in Washington for a 30 day term, and Baby Doe and Horace got hitched in a scandalous wedding in Washington, DC. Things continued to work out well indeed for the new Tabor couple. They built the opera house in Denver, reputed to be the best between Chicago and San Fransisco, and continued to live the good life until the silver market collapse of 1893. The government, which has been buying silver at a set price, decided to drop the silver standard, quit buying silver and let the market place decide the price and it. The price subsequently dropped like a rock. Horace and Baby Doe were broke. Ultimately he was appointed postmaster of Denver and continued in that capacity for a short time until his death in 1899. On his death bed he told Baby Doe to "hold on to the Matchless, it will make you rich again". Well, Baby Doe did indeed hold on to the Matchless but alas, renewed wealth was not in her future. In 1935 she was found frozen to death in the miners cabin at the mine. What I have recounted is in the public record, but I have more to tell, sort of like Paul Harvey did for so many years. Read on to learn the rest of the story. During the last years of Baby Doe's life, a woman living in Leadville would come to the cabin almost daily to help her and provide comfort. Baby Doe was always thankful for the visits and appreciated them very much. It was this woman who found her frozen to death upon arriving one cold winter morning. The first twist on the story is this woman was the mother of the receptionist at the Mt Olivet Cemetery I had the opportunity to talk with back in 2004. It is fortunate that I got a chance to speak with her because I believe that she is now gone and her story would have been lost. Anyway, Baby Doe was transported down to Mt Olivet and buried with limited fanfare. Horace, who has passed away some 36 years earlier, was buried at Fairmont Cemetery in eastern Denver. But you may have noticed that Horace is beside Baby Doe up on the hill if you have had a chance to go up there. And therein is another twist to the tale in the finest tradition of Paul Harvey. Apparently the subject was brought up about moving Horace over to Mt Olivet so the couple would be side by side. But do remember that Horace had divorced Augusta and the catholic church frowned heavily on divorce so it was decided that he would not be "accepted" at Mt Olivet. Or so everybody thought. What happened next was right out of a mystery novel and another interesting twist to the story. In the dark of night, Horace was dug up and transported over to Mt Olivet and placed beside Baby Doe before any of the powers that be got wind of it. Once in the ground, it turned out to be harder to get him moved again than it was worth so he was left there, as we see him today. This part of the story came from the manager of the Riverside Cemetery prior to his recent retirement. But would Paul Harvey be happy with only two twists to the story? I think not so let's add a third. How do I know all this stuff and why do I even care? Baby Doe Tabor and I are related, believe it or not. Years ago when I became interested in Colorado mining and railroads, I always wondered what happened to the principle players. Baby Doe was one of them. When I moved to Colorado I played tourist the first couple of years and made a trip to the Matchless Mine, took the tour, and noted that her marriage license on the wall listed her middle name as the same as my last name. After that, a little genealogy research was all that was required to establish the link. We are 5th or 6th cousins (how many generation you must go back to find a common ancestor) probably 3 times removed (generational differences between sides of the tree), something I will need to research a little more. And that is the rest of the story. There are a number of caches in the cemetery. Stop in and enjoy doing the caches if you have the time.
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