The Fifty Niners

McDougal's warning about the possibility of encountering severe weather on the Platte-Arkansas Divide might well have been repeated to the tens of thousands of gold seekers who crowded the Ckerokee Trail during the great Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859. The old adage of safety in numbers did not necessarily hold true for those faced with killer snowstorms as they approached Fagan's grave. Late spring snows fell on 25 May and 3 June; on both dates ill-prepared Peakers froze to death. Their frozen bodies were buried beside the trail, one after the other.

The first of the Fifty-Niners to make mention of the frozen gold seekers was a young man named Calvin Perry Clark. Calvin, with his father and several friends and relatives, had left Plano, Illinois, on 23 March 1859. They had traveled by railroad to St. Joseph, by steamboat to Leavenworth, then by ox train up the trail towards the pinery on the divide.

By the time they turned north up the Cherokee Trail,, the Clark party was immediately behind the vanguard of the gold rush. While the older men goaded the oxen up the trail towards the pinery on the divide young Calvin and a friend made a short side trip to Pikes Peak. On their return the duo were forced to swim the "cold snow water" of Monument Creek. They spent the night huddled together over a small fire; "verry cold," Calvin remembered it. The next afternoon they overtook their fellow Illini in the forest, where Calvin again found time to make an entry in his diary:

1 June 1859 "overtook the teams today in the Pinery at 1 O'clock P.m. cold wind but not uncomfotable with an over coat on. Fayns Grave. the above named person was frozen to death in the spring of 1858, being under the influence of the Spirrit, in undertaking to cross this devide right in the face of a snow storm. this region is called the Mountain Devide, between Cherry Creek and Pike's Peak. One man was frozen to deth here last Thursday May 25th 1859 in a snow storm 1-4 mile behind his team. at this time thare was several men lost that has never been herd from since. supposed to be frozen to deth."(1)

Calvin's obvious mispelling of Fagan's name is not unexpected considering his spelling difficulties throughout his narrative. His veiled reference to liquor as a contributing factor in the teamster's death is more of a surprise, although it might well have been based on reports circulating among the gold seekers about a cache of whiskey hidden somewhere in the vicinity of Point of Rocks.

The deaths from freezing mentioned in Calvin's diary resulted in the appearance of several more graves in the pinery. Texan A.M. Gass, traveling some twelve days behind the Clark Party, noticed three graves on Black Squirrel Creek "two of them made this spring; the other in '58."(2) These were in addition to Fagan's grave further up the trail.

Gass's tally of four graves was more than doubled by Mrs. Ellen Hunt, who traveled the Cherokee Trail in late June of 1859 with her husband and two small children. Mrs. Hunt had but recently been close to death herself; that memory only enhanced the accuracy of the grave count she provided in her diary entry for 25 June 1859:

"Started at moon rise and traveled 15 miles before breakfast, to a pine forest - very beautiful but sad from the number of graves here - 8 are in view of persons who have frozen to death, one as late as June third, '59. The changes are so sudden even in the summer that from being very warm it will be so cold as to benumb the body before fire can be made to warm it. These changes generally occur after a rain, or storm of some kind."(3)

Not all the gold seekers of 1859 kept a count of the graves lining the Cherokee Trail through the forest. Many who participated in the gold rush were farmers by profession. Their practiced eye noted the availability of tillable land, the fertility of the soil, and the possibilities for irrigation. The only grave these displaced farmers seem to have noticed was that of Michael Fagan, and then only because it lay in such a fertile valley.

Fagan's Grave

Peaker A.M. Gass spoke in glowing terms of the high prairie just to the south of Black Squirrel Creek. The grass seemed good, a sure indication that the region was well adapted to the growth of corn. But the divide itself he found to be very indifferent, "fit only to grow pine and strawberries."(4) Unlike Gass, Fifty-Niner George M. Willing saw possibilites for both forest and prairie. On 10 June 1859 he wrote:

"At 10 A.m., leave the Pinery which is a fine body of timber, and enter a prairie valley, rich and well set with excellent grass. Fine farms may be made here. Pass the grave of a man named Fagan, who froze to death last May. Deer pass us in droves, but we have no time to bother with them."(5)

Among the most enthusiastic of the gold seekers was Samuel D. Raymond. Raymond had traveled the southern route with a party from Kansas City. On the way north up the Cherokee Trail he had several times appraised choice locations with an eye to future settlement. In the valley surrounding Fagan's grave he finally found what he was looking for:

"Tues. May 31st (1859). After Striking 'Black Squirrel Creek' we found ourselves in the midst of a beautifull Pine Woods which made me feel quite at home. Found the road here more level. Travelled to day 18 mls and encamped near 'Fagans grave.' Water not verry good. Grass tolerable - Wood abundant. Right in front of us is quite a high lege of Rocks the Sides covered with Pine Trees. This valley is excellent for Farming purposes and will in some future time be the garden of the West. There is Pine Trees in abundance - Stone numerous. Streams of water, rich Soil & an excellent climate. Nothing more is needed but the strong arm of the hardy yeomanry to subdue it and bring it to perfection."(6)

Whether interested primarily in grave-counting or in farming, nearly all diarists of 1859 made mention of Fagan's grave. The reasons for this were many. First, Fagan's grave may have been the only grave on the divide with a recognizable grave marker at its head. Second, the teamster was buried only a short distance to the east of the trail; his dirt-covered mound, with its gleaming white rocks, was no doubt clearly visible to all who passed that way. Third, the area surrounding Fagan's grave was one of the most used campgrounds on the divide. The three essentials of 19th century camping were there in abundance: the pine trees covering Point of Rocks provided the wood, West Kiowa Creek the water, and the high country meadow the luxuriant buffalo grass.

For those gold seekers who had spent the previous night at Jimmy Camp and nooned on Black Squirrel Creek it was but an afternoon's drive to night camp in the valley where Fagan lay buried. After the evening meal and before writing of the day's events in their diaries, many a gold seeker must have walked the campground and paused for a moment to read the marker above the mounded grave.

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FOOTNOTES -

(1)- Clark, Calvin Perry. Two Diaries. (Denver: Denver Public Library, 1962).

(2)(4)- Gass, A.M. "Diary of A.M. Gass." Overland Routes to the Gold Fields, 1859, ed. by LeRoy R. Hafen (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1942).

(3)- Hunt, Ellen, "Diary of Mrs. A.C. Hunt, 1859," ed. by Leroy R. Hafen, Colorado Magazine, Vol.XXI, (September, 1944), pp.167-68.

(5)- Willing, George M. "Diary of a journey to the Pike's Peak gold mines in 1859," ed. by Ralph P. Fisher (Cedar Rapids, Ia., Torch Press, 1927).

(6)- Raymond, Samuel D. Unpublished manuscript in possession of the State Historical Society of Colorado.