What we know
Given by D. T. Wolf in 1873, free to all settlers; the first burial appears to be Amanda Ball's (1874). Peter Brannan built a cabin on the site about 1861 (county map, S-0123, citing the Castle Rock Journal, Oct. 1, 1897, and Marr, 1983, p. 217). Beside St. Philip-in-the-Field. The cemetery index lists earlier deaths than Amanda Ball's (Nov. 12, 1874): Irving O. Steele, March 9, 1874, aged 15, and James M. Boone, April 18, 1874; Wolf's gift was three acres beside the church, founded in February 1872. The June 1965 flood destroyed the sexton's house and the records (Bear Canon index and David J. Pack's history, 2009, S-0129). With the church, National Register April 11, 1973 (county landmarks map, S-0126).
Where it was
Pin on the Douglas County Historic Resource Map (DCHR-086; Douglas County and Douglas County Libraries, 2012, on the Larkspur Historical Society's Google map, S-0123). Where that map and ours place the same site, the pins mostly fall within about 300 feet. Good to a few hundred feet.
Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.
Sources
- S-0016: Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (coloradohistoricnewspapers.org)
- S-0045: Larkspur Historical Society website (larkspurhistoricalsociety.org)
- S-0046: Douglas County Libraries, Archives & Local History: "Douglas County Timeline," "Douglas County Historic Sites," "Douglas County Schools Overview" (research collection PDFs 2, 7, 6)
- S-0123: Douglas County Historic Resource Map (Douglas County Community Planning and Sustainable Development, the Douglas County History Research Center of Douglas County Libraries, and the Douglas County Historic Preservation Board, 2012), as put on Google Maps and Google Earth by the Larkspur Historical Society
- S-0126: Douglas County Historic Preservation Board and Landmarks Program: landmark pages (2010-2022), board minutes and documents, the 2009 landmarks map and the 2010 Historic Resources map PDF (douglas.co.us, via the Wayback Machine)
- S-0129: Douglas County History Research Center web pages (douglascountyhistory.org, via the Wayback Machine): the Bear Canon Cemetery index (2009) and David J. Pack's history; the Douglas County History Web (2005)
Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.