Mount Silverheels is a
mountain in Colorado
, one of the
637 peaks above in elevation in the state (see thirteeners). It is located in the
Mosquito Range in Park County,
Colorado
between Breckenridge
and Fairplay
, within the Pike National Forest
. It is the 96th highest peak in
Colorado.
Mount
Silverheels is just east of two fourteeners: Mount Bross
and Mount Lincoln
.
The mountain was named for Silverheels, a dance hall girl in the
nearby mining camp of
Buckskin
Joe. She was nicknamed "Silverheels" because of the silver
shoes she wore in the dance halls. Legend has it that in 1861 a
smallpox epidemic hit the small camp. Most
of the miners stayed for fear of claim jumpers.
Most of the women and
children fled to Denver
; but
Silverheels stayed. She nursed her friends and neighbors
through the disease. Soon, she caught the disease and managed to
struggle through. But the small pox scarred her beautiful face and
she ran into her cabin located at the base of Mount Silverheels.
Once the epidemic was over, the miners that survived raised money
for her as thanks. They soon had raised $5,000. Upon taking it to
her cabin, the miners discovered that she was no longer there. Her
cabin appeared deserted. Many believed that she had hidden because
the smallpox had left her so scarred. The money was returned to the
miners, but many still wanted to show thanks, so the nearby
mountain was named after her. Several years later when Buckskin Joe
was run down and the gold rush over, someone claimed to have seen a
black veiled woman placing flowers on the graves of those who died
in the 1861 smallpox epidemic. Even today, people claim to see a
black veiled woman wandering around Buckskin Joe cemetery.
See also
References
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