The photo above was taken in the Golden Cemetery on May 19, 1935. The newly-completed stone warming house appears in the background. On a recent visit to the cemetery, I looked for the markers shown in that photo.
I found the markers–and what a difference 89 years makes! The warming house (now the cemetery office) is still there, but it’s hidden behind a big Colorado Spruce.
Until the mid-1930s, the Golden Cemetery lacked an irrigation system–which meant no trees. Despite the on-going Depression, then-Mayor A. E. Jones made cemetery improvements his personal mission. He asked the public for donations of pipe and cobbled together an irrigation system. Then he encouraged people to donate trees from their own yards. More trees were added in the 1950s, when the City transplanted dozens of evergreens from the Beaver Brook property.
Several particularly fine specimens are now labeled, and the cemetery is beginning to serve a dual purpose as an arboretum.
Many thanks to an anonymous donor for sponsoring Golden History Moments for the month of October.
