Entry No. 8 — the Boulder file — filed under: history
Columbia Cemetery
Boulder's oldest burial ground, founded in 1870 when Columbia Masonic Lodge No. 14 purchased ten acres for $200, Columbia Cemetery holds nearly 6,500 souls on 10.5 residential acres just west of downtown. The first burial — Anna Eggleston — was in May 1870, and the headstones that followed tell the city's whole story: Andrew Macky the banker, Mary Rippon (CU's first female professor), "Rocky Mountain Joe" Sturtevant the frontier photographer, and Tom Horn, the stock detective hanged in Wyoming whose brother quietly brought him home here. Some markers read only "Union Soldier." The wrought-iron fence, mature shade trees, and near-total absence of other visitors give the grounds an unhurried, genuinely old-city atmosphere that nowhere else in Boulder quite matches. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1997.
The move: Walk the crusher-fines path at dusk with a downloaded plot map from the city website — hunt for Tom Horn's stone, the red "Lollipop" marker, and the anonymous Union Soldier lots. Quiet, free, and unsettling in the best possible way.
📍 Before you go Open dawn to dusk, no admission fee. No vehicle access — gates have been closed to cars since 1977. Street parking along College Ave. and Pleasant St. A plot map is posted just inside the entrance; photograph it to navigate the grounds. Wheelchair-accessible crusher-fines path with a gradual grade. The city runs an annual "Meet the Spirits" Halloween walking tour in October — check bouldercolorado.gov for dates. Pets must be leashed.
- 📍 Boulder
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 9th Street and Pleasant Street, Boulder, CO 80302
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4
last checked: 2026-06-11