 View from the Ritter Ranch |
The inspiration to photograph the Walsenburg Masonic Cemetery had its genesis almost a year ago, when my husband Kevin and I decided that our next "vacation" would be in Huerfano County, Colorado. I had recently learned that I still had living relatives in the area, and I was VERY anxious to meet them! Since Kevin and I share the "genealogical bug", this was exciting to both of us.
Then, Kevin gave me a digital camera for Christmas, which planted the seed of taking pictures of the family graves in Walsenburg. I had been leery of spending too much on photos, since developing costs really add up, but having the digital camera made those concerns moot. After corresponding with Karen Mitchell, County Coordinator for the Huerfano County webpages at Rootsweb, I began to realize there was a need to get the catalog of the Walsenburg Masonic Cemetery started. As one of the oldest cemeteries in the county, it was an invaluable resource that more folks than just myself could use, online. |
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| Karen had mentioned that she hadn't been there in a while, but she thought there were 300-400 graves there. Knowing the capacity of my camera, I told her I'd do it. I figured it would take an afternoon. Well, time passed, and we finally arrived in Huerfano County. After a couple days of meeting relatives (WOW!) we decided it was time to get started on the Masonic Cemetery. I stopped by the Walsenburg Library, and located a 90-page listing of people who had been interred in the cemetery. Hmmm . . . 90 pages?? On viewing the cemetery, I realized there were far, far more graves than the 300-400 Karen mentioned. More like 3000! Oh my . . . this small "afternoon" project was looming much larger than I had thought. But, we plunged in as intrepid explorers, starting with what appeared to be the most unkempt area in the cemetery, which I labeled #1. We figured that no matter what, if we got that section done, it would make things easier for anyone following in our footsteps. Well, 300 pictures later, after tromping thru cactuses and thorny bushes, keeping an eye out for snakes, Section 1 was still not done. I had been marking the names off on my 90-page list (which I had copied at the library) and it seemed like only about three-quarters of the graves were listed there! Keeping track of the loose pages was a challenge in the healthy breezes, too. |
 The Walsenburg Masonic Cemetery |
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 My (2C1R) Cousin Claudia and myself |
At one point in the afternoon, an older gentleman stopped by and inquiried what we were doing. We explained about photographing the cemetery, and looking for my ancestors' graves. He mentioned that he had seen my GGGGrandfather's grave "Over there" (pointing). Kevin and I immediately raced over there, and there it was, the grave of Henry Jabez Strange and his wife Amelia Hart Strange! We were so excited! We finally called a halt, and decided to make a trip up to Pueblo and get the loose pages bound at the Kinko's there. This was probably the best idea we had the entire time. Having our reference pages held in a tidy manner while tromping made such a difference! We had it bound with dividers for letters of the alphabet, making finding the listings much easier.< The next day, we were meeting Karen at the Cemetery. We headed back into the "no-man's-land" of Section 1, and managed to finish it off quickly, the newly-bound reference pages making it much easier to find people, and record those not listed. Then, since the rest of the cemetery was in much better shape, Kevin plunged into taking pictures solo, trusting that I'd be able to decipher the photos well enough to build the web page by viewing them, rather than following along taking notes. |
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| When Kevin was about halfway through Section 2, Karen showed up. After greetings and beatings (for misjudging the size of the Cemetery) Karen joined me in creating a handwritten map of the Cemetery. We had fun showing off our "Traveling Cemetery Assault Kit", consisting of my laptop computer and camera PC-card reader setup, which made transferring the photos from camera to computer a breeze. We explained to Karen that we'd photograph what we could, and hope that someone would help finish off the project. She assured me that somehow, someone would. I firmly believe that, too! After all, the hard stuff is done (big grin). After a nice visit, Karen left us to our work, and the the afternoon wore on. As Kevin was finishing a section, the older gentleman from the previous day stopped by again, to see how we were doing. He walks in the cemetery every day for exercise. We chatted a bit about how it was coming along, and I said I was interested in the mining in the area, as my forebears were all coal miners. He said his wife ran the Mining Museum, and if I wanted to get in when it wasn't "open", just give her a call and she'd come over and let me see it. I love small towns! He also mentioned the name of the man who had been caretaker for the Cemetery for many years, and how to get hold of him. I was interested in finding the plot records for the Cemetery. |
 The Strange Headstone |
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 Another View of the Cemetery |
Well, I immediately went on the hunt! After a couple misturns, I found the house where the caretaker lived. I explained to him and his wife who I was and what I was up to. I asked if I could see the records. They invited me in, and showed me the small notebook that held the records for the Masonic Cemetery. This was it. There were no grand records anywhere, just this little looseleaf notebook! Blinking, I asked if they would let me copy it, calling doom and misfortune down on myself if I failed to return it the next day. They agreed, finally. Waving goodbye, I raced back to the Cemetery, where Kevin had been continuing with the photography. I showed it to him, and then sped off to the library to photocopy it. I managed to get all 150-ish pages copied before they closed, and then went back to the Caretaker's house and returned the notebook. I explained I could sense their concern, and wanted them to get it back right away. |
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| So, I now have what appears to be the only copy of this notebook, and it will be posted on this website in the near future. This should make finding "lost" headstones a bit easier. Our time photographing was done. Kevin had taken pictures of the headstones in seven of the fourteen sections of the Cemetery, almost 1700 photographs!. We had enough information to choke the proverbial horse, and Kevin had a nasty sunburn. (HINT: REMEMBER SUNSCREEN NEXT TIME!) Now all that remained was to get what we have online, and these pages are that part. I hope you have as much fun going thru them as we did making them. I realize that not all the pictures are as legible as we might have hoped, but I'm sure that you can get some good information from them. And please, if anyone reading this is willing to plunge in and finish the photography, let me know! |
 Section 6, Walsenburg Masonic Cemetery |
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 Downtown Walsenburg |
I thought I should also add some information about our "on the road" setup. First of all, we're using Apple Macintosh Powerbooks, the "Wallstreet" model, with a G3/250mhz processor, and 196Mb of RAM. The camera is an Olympus D-450 Zoom digital, and uses SmartMedia cards for picture storage. To transfer the photos to the computer, I used an ActionTec SmartMedia "Shuttle Bay" PCMCIA card adapter, which slides into the Powerbook's PC-Card slot. This particular setup makes moving the photos from the SmartMedia card to the computer a breeze . . . just drag and drop. These pages were created on the Mac, using
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Special thanks go to: Karen Mitchell, the Walsenburg Public Library staff, Jim and Margaret Williams, Gail Ritter, Claudia Capps and the gentleman in the cemetery, whose name unfortunately escapes me.
Nancy Godfrey-Kozoriz & Kevin Kozoriz |
 The Orphan Butte - Huerfano County's Namesake |
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