Haunting at Fairview Cemetery

Recently, I checked out The Ghosts of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak by Stephanie Waters.   While this book contains a lot of very interesting information and fun haunted lore, I found it brimming with misogyny, cliches,' and racial stereotypes.  I am determined to play ghost hunter and visit some of the sites identified in the book.  Then I shall retell the stories here at Lady M's, minus the blatant misogyny, ugly racism and boring cliches'.

Back in the 1890's,  Old Colorado City was a wild town that had 28 saloons with brothels and tunnels, where respectable men could sneak about without sullying their reputations.  Laura Bell McDaniel was one of the most successful madams in town.  She ran an elegant brothel complete with Persian rugs, chandeliers, and gambling. But her job was not without challenges.  Citizen activists burnt her brothel and home and her female employees were beaten.  In 1917,  she was arrested for stealing 34 bottles of liquor but was later exonerated on the testimony of a friend who said the bottles were planted.  The day following her acquittal, while driving to Denver, the brakes on Ms. McDaniels brand new luxury car failed and she was killed along with her niece. Oddly, the Colorado Springs deputy district attorney and two other men were following closely behind.  It is generally recognized today that someone in a position of power ordered the cars brakes tampered with to end Laura Bell McDaniel's life and career.

She was laid to rest  next to her niece in the Fairview Cemetery, a lovely place just 8 or so blocks south of Old Colorado City.  Despite her suspicious death, she was at peace until her family uprooted her corpse and move it next to the restrooms.  Since then, her scowling well dressed ghost has been seen leaning against the new family tombstone.  So she never knew she was murdered but she is pissed to spend eternity next to the porta potty.

 Another famous Old Colorado City madam suffered a similar fate.  Blanch Burton was a much persecuted madam who ran various establishments in both OCC and Cripple Creek.  However, she was a kind and generous person, who nursed the sick and used the last of her money to by coal for a destitute family for Christmas.  On the evening of Dec. 20th 1909, Blanche was found running down Colorado Avenue on fire.  She later died from her burns without any money.  Fellow madam Mamie Rogers paid for Blanches small funeral and an unmarked grave in Fairview Cemetery.  Blanches ghost was often seen crying near her final resting place until a nicer stone was erected for her in 1983.  She has not been seen since.

The final ghost who haunts the Fairview Cemetery is pissed and who can blame her?  Zadia was just 12 when 17 year old Earl Ryan began to propose to her.  She married him at 15 .  After being fired from his job and going on a months long bender (he had a drinking problem), Earl left for Fort Garland to be a teamster.  He wrote to Zadia and sent her money but found out through another that she had become a working girl and was earning her own living in Old Colorado City.   She was saving money to file for divorce, according to her attorney.  She was divorcing on the grounds of desertion and cruelty. He returned home, got drunk, got into a fight with Zadia and then murdered her and committed suicide.  They found her body stuffed down the latrine.  The families had a double funeral and buried them together.  Not long after, Zadia began to haunt the cemetery, probably pissed that she shares a grave site with Earl, the man she wanted to divorce who murdered her.  She is seen wandering the cemetery with dead flowers in hand, wearing a red dress. Scratching is heard at her headstone, people say it's her trying to dig her way out.   I would be pissed too.

So there you have it - the ghost of Fairview Cemetery.  All women violently murdered in the "good old days".