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About the author
Linda Wommack
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Linda Wommack is a Colorado native, and has enjoyed Colorado History since childhood. A distant relative to Bob Womack, of Cripple Creek gold fame, Linda has written of early Colorado history across the state in publications for the past ten years, and spends much of her time giving speeches and tours throughout Colorado, and also reviews books of historical nature for local and national publications.
Her most recent project, completing three years of research, is her fourth book, Published in the Fall of 1998, with an astonishing reprint in March of 1999, by Caxton Press.
Other books
by Linda Wommack
Colorado History
For Kids
it's 5th printing.
Cripple Creek Tailings
A Centennial Reading, 1891-1991
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The stone is not cracked, stained or defaced. It stands alone in the elements of the Colorado high country. Therein lies the haunting mystery of the tombstone and the one it memorializes.
Who was Leola Noel? Who were her parents? What happened to her, and how did she die? There are more questions than answers. At the time of Leola's brief life, many tombstones were engraved, some with intricate sculptures, including angels, flowers and lambs carved on them.
"Tombstones were stolen by curio hunters and other thieves because of embellishments They wound up on mantles or as door stops," says Harold Warren of Bailey, Park County historian. "I don't know anything about the Noel family, but the little girl's stone was stolen once. The sheriff found it in Jefferson and took it back."
Another report seems contradictory at first, but it may not be. Sometime in the late 1950's, thieves stole every single tombstone in the Park City Cemetery, all in one night. Why didn't the thieves take little Leola's tombstone? Was it not there - having been previously stolen, as Mr. Warren recalls? Did someone remove it at an earlier time, keeping it protected from the weather and thieves? Could that explain the unblemished appearance? If so, who, and why? If it had been stolen with the other
tombstones, which were never recovered, why is Leola's intact and where it should be? Were her parents involved? What was their reaction to all of this? Or had they moved on, as so many miner's family did? The questions are mysteries that hover around this solemn tombstone to the memory of a lost little girl.
Newspapers of the era are filled with accounts of dreaded diseases in the mining camps. Park County was no exception. Children were particularly vulnerable, and many died from diphtheria, smallpox, brain fever, and pneumonia. The cemetery at Alma, also known as the Buckskin Joe Cemetery, is a testament to such hardship.
The cemetery, above Fairplay, is all that remains of the ghost town of Buckskin Joe. Close inspection of the tombstone dates reveals a cemetery population boom in 1861 and 1862.
The grim reaper visited the mining camp in the form of smallpox. Many of the miners and their families died within weeks. Legends of a spirit roam the sacred burial ground. Known as Silver Heels, her mysterious presence has been felt, and her ghostly appearance has been reportedly seen for over a century.
From the day she stepped off the stagecoach at Buckskin Joe, her beauty captivated the entire mining camp. No one knows her real name, for the miners dubbed her "Silver Heels." Perhaps for her dance shoes, or perhaps for her enchanting performances at the local dance hall. In any event, the beloved Silver Heels prepared to travel on after a few nightly performances, when the miners showered her with gifts and begged her to stay. Silver Heels agreed.
The deadly disease smallpox invaded the mining camp during the early winter of 1861. Within a matter of days, the rutted dirt road to the cemetery became lined with the living carrying the dead up the hillside for burial. Business came to a dead halt, literally. All who could help, did so, including Silver Heels. Especially Silver Heels.
All through the deadly horror of the smallpox explosion, Silver Heels stayed in cabin after cabin, nursing the sick, caring for the families, burying the dead. By the spring of 1862, the worst was over, at least for the mining camp of Buckskin Joe.
In the aftermath, Silver Heels had vanished. The surviving miners searched the entire mountain area. Her cabin was clean, yet she was gone. She had not left by stage or horse. Some say she herself had contracted smallpox, leaving her once beautiful face horribly scarred.
A few years later, a heavily veiled woman, dressed in black, appeared walking through the cemetery. Several members of the community claimed to have seen the ghost-like presence carrying flowers. The ghost would vanish into the mountain air if approached. The same conclusion came to all who claimed to have seen her, it must be Silver Heels. Once so beautiful, now she was scarred. She was still loved, she just didn't know it. Did she return from the living or from the dead? Legend or truth? A ghostly haunting? Walk the cemetery, feel the presence... you will believe.
Myths and legends seldom rest on evidence. And ghosts? That's what moonlight shadows and creepy, foggy nights are all about.
Copyright © 2003 Linda Wommack. All rights reserved
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