Stephen Weidner - AAPI Founder
On this particular evening we were walking through Cheeseman Park and noticed a few of the members of the group were complaining of being light headed and dizzy. I snapped a few photos. This one was taken when I felt the very same light headedness the others did. I noticed that the right half of the photo is blurred leaving the left half untouched. It also seems to be discolored. Also, I noticed that there is an Orb just floating half behind the leaves of the tree. One thing I would like to point out is that if it were windy, the Orb would be in motion and look like it is moving towards whatever direction the wind would have been blowing. This was a very calm night, minus the traffic several hundred yards away.
We originally had an article written by Chris Williams shared on this page. However, it seems someone, who is not Chris Williams, said it was theirs. Here is a copy of the email sent by 'said group' with a 'demand' that the article, by someone other than them, should be removed.
In liew of this, we are doing a complete history, thanks to the Denver Historical Society and Archive department, and we will have 'The Real Story' behind Cheeseman Park listed on this page very shortly.
Here is a copy of the emails sent by this paranormal group. This is, apparently, how they do business:
***********
We are contacting you for a second time in regards to the Cheesman
Park page on your site. The page is located at
http://www.ghostpi.com/Photos-CheesemanPark.htm.
The page itself states:?Below is a brief history of Cheeseman Park,
researched by Chris Williams.? Chris Williams was one of our founding
members and the article in question was copied directly from the Rocky
Mountain Paranormal Page.
On the index page of the AAPI site it states:
?All materials on this web site or in association with AAPI are
protected under copyright laws. Any illegal usage without permission
will be prosecuted by law.?
With the copyright statement that you have on the page and the fact
that you have kept the article on your page (even though we have
requested it be removed) we feel that you think that this copyright
law only applies towards you and nobody else.
We are requesting one last time that this article be removed form the
site before we take action.
If you read the previous e-mails you would notice that the ownership
of the article in question is NOT! represented as property of the
Rocky Mountian News, it is the property of the Rocky Mountain
Paranormal Research Society.
So, consider this your affidavit and the signature at the end as an
electronic signature as a representative of the RMPRS.
Where you obtained the "public domian" status of the article is
definately in question, and we would like to see the source that you
claim it is from. As we can provide the original word .doc that it
originated from.
This is the third in a series of e-mails requesting the removal of the
article.
This is the first reply that we have received from you and would like
to see the other e-mails tat you claim that you have sent.
Sincerely,
Bryan Bonner
Matthew Baxter
Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society
**********
We have yet to hear how Chris Williams feels about this. Although we should have received a notice from Chris Williams himself, we removed his article out of respect for the author. Nothing else.
**********
CHEESMAN PARK
A Brief History
By Sharon Raines, AAPI
So many paranormal groups go out to cemeteries seeking an experience but, for the most part, cemeteries aren’t where the ghosts are. Of course there are exceptions, and those usually have an unusual cause. But you say Cheesman Park isn’t a Cemetery! Not now, but it once was. The very brief and to the point history of Cheesman Park is as follows:
1858: General William Larimer steals land from the Town Company which was actually granted to the Arapaho via the Western custom of ‘Claim Jumping’ and uses it to create Denver. He sets aside an area which now includes the Botanical Gardens, Cheesman Park and Congress Park for use as a cemetery. The first grave in the new Prospect Hill Cemetery (also known as Mount Prospect), is dug in 1859.
1872: After Larimer leaves Denver, the land reverts to the Federal Government. By Act of Congress the Arapaho lands taken by Larimer and reverted to Federal status are turned over to the local jurisdiction and ownership of the City of Denver. Shortly after this the center 40 acres is sold to the archdiocese for a Roman Catholic Cemetery. The area of Cheesman Park is now the Protestant Cemetery, and its outskirts reserved for paupers, criminals and vagrant graves.
1875: The Mayor of Denver sells 20 acres in the southern area of the park to the Hebrew Burial Society for their cemetery. The Chinese begin to form their own residential area near Mount Prospect.
1881: A “pestilence hospital” for the quarantine of small pox and other contagious disease victims was established just south of the Jewish Cemetery. A Paupers Field for mass graves is placed behind this building.
1890: Mount Prospect has fallen into general disuse and is considered an eyesore by the more affluent populace living around the area. The entire site excluding the Jewish and Catholic cemeteries and the “Pest House” is therefore re-designated as Congress Park and local residents are given 90 days to exhume and remove their relatives to other cemeteries. After the 90 days a local undertaker is contracted to remove all unclaimed remains from the Protestant section and to relocate them to Riverside Cemetery at a fee of $1.90 per box delivered for interment. The contractor begins a semi-organized system of grave robbing. His workers desecrate the graves and carry off “trinkets” and valuables as a means to extra cash and dismember and combine bodies to increase the number of new boxes delivered to Riverside Cemetery where they are reentered with as many as 3 boxes to a grave in order for the contractor to save money. A local paper decries the entire debacle and the contracted undertaker is fired. Unfortunately, no one is ever hired to replace him and the open graves and discarded funerary bits are left lying about until the area is leveled and graded for the new park beginning in 1894. At about this same time the Chinese section also remove their own dead and have the remains returned to China.
1907: The park is completed over the remaining graves. Two years later it is renamed Cheesman Park as part of an agreement with the Cheesman family and the donation of a marble pavilion.
1923: The Hebrew burial ground is returned to the city and its residents moved to other cemeteries.
1930: The Chinese section, which has been used as a shrub and tree farm for the park is incorporated into Congress Park.
1950: The Catholic Church removes all interred remains from its cemetery and sells the land back to the city.
People continue to find graves at Cheesman Park as recently as October 2007, when a child’s grave was discovered during a demonstration of ground penetrating radar for some local college students. An estimated 2000 graves remain under the park to this day.
As to paranormal evidence, it is almost all anecdotal, having been collected through the years. Statements and sightings have included:
Groups doing investigations in the park have obtained some EVP and photographic evidence, but nothing to date in line with the purported anecdotal stories.
Below please find a bibliography and references. I would recommend you check out these websites for a more complete history of Cheesman Park than I have given here. The history is actually very interesting.
“A Cheesman Park Story.” Author unknown. Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society. www.rockymountainparanormal.com
“A Haunted History: Cheesman Park, Denver Colorado.” A.M. Pettry CHT. (2007) www.ufodigest.com
“Central Denver Park District: Cheesman Park.” Author unknown. www.denvergov.org/CheesmanPark/
“Cheesman Park.” Author unknown. Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society. www.rockymountainparanormal.com
“Colorado Legends: Ghosts of Cheesman Park in Denver.” Author unknown. Legends of America. www.legendsofamerica.com
“Eerie Past Haunts: Cheesman Park”. Allison Sherry. The Denver Post, October 2007. www.denverpost.com
“Ghosts of Cheesman Park in Denver Colorado: Slackjaw of Cheesman Park.” Lee Cook. www.legendsofamerica.com
Haunted Places: The National Directory. Dennis William Hauck. Penguin Books (1996).
Examples of Super Charged Orbs taken at Cheeseman.
Photos Page ~~~~~~~~ Home Page
American Association of Paranormal Investigators 