Mt. Pisgah Cemetery

Mt. Pisgah Cemetery sits on the hillside above Cripple Creek and is worth the short walk up for the views alone — on a clear day you can see across the mining district to the peaks beyond Victor. The graveyard itself, active since the 1890s, is studded with weathered sandstone and marble markers from the gold rush era, a mix of prospectors, merchants, miners who died underground, and the families who followed them west.

The cemetery is open and unfenced. A slow wander through the older sections reveals the mix of nationalities that made up the boom-town population — Irish, Cornish, Italian, and Scandinavian names predominate. It's one of the few places in Cripple Creek that feels genuinely untouched by the casino era.

things to do sight
A story
The cemetery's most visited grave is that of a gambler named Coates, whose elaborate monument was reportedly paid for by his fellow gamblers out of respect for his skill at faro. Many of the markers record ages in the twenties and thirties — mining was dangerous work, and the crowded conditions of a boom town meant disease spread quickly. A measles epidemic in 1900 killed dozens of children buried in the far corner of the grounds.