Melvin-Lewis Pioneer Cemetery in Aurora, Colorado

Tucked behind an unassuming Chick-Fil-A sits a small, 200x120 feet patch of grass bordered by a wrought iron fence. Behind the gates, the area houses the remains of early settlers as well as the ashes of over hundreds of others spanning over a century. In the days when this was still pioneer country, the place was known as the Melvin community, gathered around John and Jane Melvin’s ranch, the Twelve Mile House. It was, by the standards of the time, an important stopping point. Westward travelers could eat, sleep, rest their horses and continue their journeys. Some, however, never continued anywhere. They were buried on the property alongside the settlers who had made this remote corner their home. The ranch was eventually sold to John and Emma Lewis, and in time passed into the hands of the University of Colorado. Thereafter it changed hands several more times, as the landscape around it was transformed almost beyond recognition. By 2002, what had once been an isolated settlement had become something far more familiar to the modern world: a busy shopping center. Yet amid the parking lots, storefronts and traffic, a tiny piece of the old community survived. The developer agreed to preserve the cemetery, which now sits behind a black iron fence and gate bearing the name Melvin-Lewis Cemetery. It is an oddly poignant remnant of what came before. The cemetery contains not only the remains of those early settlers, but also the ashes of some 1,600 people who donated their bodies to science. The result is a place where several very different chapters of history have, quite literally, been laid to rest together.

Read it at Atlas Obscura ↗

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