Entry No. 10 — the Durango file — filed under: haunted
Hillside Cemetery
“A tenth of Silverton died in under two weeks. Ninety people in two mass graves.”
Three thousand graves climb the lower slope of Boulder Mountain above 9,300 feet—no grid, no paths, just headstones following the terrain since four-year-old Rachel Farrow was buried here in 1875. Read the stones: shaft collapses, dynamite, the 1906 avalanches that killed twelve men at the Shenandoah Mine in one slide. Then find the 1969 marker over the flu trenches, where Silverton laid roughly ninety people in two mass graves after the 1918 epidemic killed a tenth of the town in under two weeks.
The move: Hike up at golden hour and take turns reading epitaphs aloud until you find the 1969 flu-trench marker, then count how many stones name an avalanche.
📍 Before you go Drive north out of town on Greene Street (CO-110); where the pavement bends hard left, keep right onto the dirt road and bear left at the split—the gate is about a quarter mile up. The twenty acres have no grid and no paved paths, just steep grassy mountainside at altitude, so wear real shoes and budget more time than you think (two hours barely covers it). The San Juan County Historical Society maintains the grounds and publishes Freda Peterson's burial-record volumes if you want names to hunt. Pairs naturally with the Christ of the Mines shrine on Anvil Mountain across the valley.
- 📍 Silverton
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: County Road 34A, off CO-110/Greene St just north of town, Silverton, CO 81433
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