It’s no secret that Cheesman Park in Denver is considered one of the most haunted places in Colorado. Haunted Cheesman Park is southeast of downtown, it’s an 80-acre green space frequented by locals and visitors alike. By all accounts it should be an oasis, but you would be flabbergasted by the morbid—albeit organic—fertilizer unintentionally used to feed the lush greenery.
Yes, that’s right. Like many before me, I’m making fun of the fact that Cheesman Park is built on thousands of bodies—but hey, what a great way to offset one’s carbon footprint. Let’s dig in—yeah, I said it.
From Cemetery to Park: A Morbid Transformation
Officially opened in 1907, the park’s construction started in the 1890s. But before that, the plot of land was the city’s largest cemetery. Prospect Cemetery was established in 1859, and would be the final resting place of an estimated 5,000 people. Over the years, the cemetery became neglected, the vegetation overgrown, and the tombstones deteriorating created what the residents called an eyesore, sounds pretty nice to me, but you know how Victorian era folk are. The city became fed up with the cemetery and moved to have it reimagined as a park. Quite literally out with the old and in with the new.
This was no easy feat, digging up and moving 5,000 bodies in the late 1800s. A man by the name of E. P. McGovern was contracted to dig up and remove all the bodies from the cemetery. He was offered $1.90 per body he removed; what seemed a straightforward job quickly turned into young Denver’s biggest scandal.
The Scandal of E. P. McGovern
The deal was E. P. McGovern would dig up a body and place it in a new coffin, that E. P. McGovern would pay for and provide, then send them to a different cemetery. There was no official account of how many bodies were buried, so E. P. McGovern quickly realized that the 5,000-body estimate could fluctuate in his favor. He also discovered that a child-size coffin was a cheaper option for him to provide. So he starts to chop up bodies and places them in tiny coffins, increasing the number of bodies he can charge the city for, top-tier capitalism. Body parts of different individuals were placed in the same coffin—a leg from one person and a couple of arms from another, like you wouldn’t do the same.
The scam only lasted a few days before it was discovered. When city officials went to inspect the claims, they found bodies and body parts laying all over, and E. P. McGovern and his crew tossing hacked-up body parts into small coffins.
The city opened an investigation into E. P. McGovern, and he was fired soon after. By his account, he claimed to have removed 1,500 bodies, but remember, this is a shady dude, so that number is probably inflated. In the wake of the scandal, the city decided that building the park on top of the remaining bodies was perfectly fine—gotta love politicians.
Memorializing Cheesman
Walter Cheesman died the same year the park opened. His wife and daughter wanted him memorialized, so they donated a substantial sum of his estate to the city to help further develop the park, and this is why the park is named after him. Part of the proceeds went to pay for the Cheesman Memorial Pavilion, the park’s most iconic and useless feature.
Over the next couple of decades, as the area around the park was developed, more bodies were found and removed, but today an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 bodies are believed to still lay beneath the park. It’s even inspired some movies like 1980’s The Changeling.
Hauntings at Cheesman Park
Ghostly Apparitions
Many visitors and residents have reported seeing apparitions dressed in 19th-century clothes wandering through the park or lying on the ground that vanish when approached. The most common is a woman in white (quick mark that down on your ghost bingo card!) wandering around the Cheesman Memorial Pavilion.
Children’s Laughter and Cold Spots
At night, the sound of children playing, laughing, or crying can be heard. Some even claim they have seen kids playing in the park at night but disappear when approached. Disembodied murmuring and whispers are often reported, along with people claiming to hear someone call their name when no one is around.
An anomaly of hearing footsteps following lone people in the park is commonly reported, or maybe it could be the Cheesman Park Strangler, a fictional serial killer I’ve just made up for the purpose of this blog post. Cold spots are the most common paranormal event reported, and the only one on the list I’ve experienced (ironically, or maybe the proper term is comically, I have felt the most cold spot activity by the only playground in the park). Lastly, a feeling of sadness, fear, and paranoia, as if someone is watching—or it could be the Cheesman Park Strangler, now that’s a throwback.
Slackjaw
There is a specter a few residents have seen dubbed “Slackjaw.” He will approach people in the park with a broken jaw and ask for a cigarette. Then he asks, “Have you seen them?” This will prompt you to ask the question, who. Lifting up his shirt he shows you several stab wounds, then goes on to say he is looking for whoever is responsible. We know who’s not responsible, that’s right—the Cheesman Park Strangler (rule of threes, I won’t bring him up again).
Local Experiences and Ghost Hunting
For a couple of years I was doing haunted tours in the Cap Hill neighborhood, and the Cheesman Park story was in the script. Here’s a link if you want to check out that tour. One night on the tour, a young woman who was in town for a relative’s wedding said she had been to Cheesman Park earlier that day. Apparently she laid down on the grass and quickly fell asleep. She said she never takes naps, not even if she wanted to—she just can’t nap. I’ll bet she was probably laying on top of a body. This is not uncommon for people to experience, almost as if the deceased under them is trying to reach them. “Come play with us, Danny.”
Observations from Nearby Residents
I’ve talked to locals who have lived in one of the condominiums surrounding the park, and a lot of them claim that when looking down on the park from their building, they can see lumps in the ground. They believe that buried bodies are the cause. Others have claimed that after ghost hunting in the park, something followed them home, resulting in objects in their house moving on their own and hearing disembodied voices that had not existed in the residence before. Or it could be that sneaky Cheesman Park Strangler, I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself.
Bones Unearthed Through the Years
Bones are still being dug up today. The most recent was in 2010 when the city was doing some irrigation work and unearthed four skeletons. In the 60s, there were reports of bones being found during work around the park, but I haven’t found concrete evidence—just mentions in a Denver tourism blog. Before that, bones were said to have surfaced after heavy rain.
Visiting Cheesman Park Today
What’s great about Denver’s most haunted spot is it is free and centrally located. Anyone in the area, resident or visiting, can explore the park and ghost hunt, so I highly recommend this spot as a must-visit for ghost hunting.
The Denver Botanic Garden is attached to the park and was at one point a part of the cemetery. There is an entry fee, but during the month of October, the garden offers haunted tours and discusses unearthing bodies while building the garden. The park has also become a popular place for tarot readings and other witchy meet-ups. Attend at your own risk. Happy hunting, and be sure to watch out for the Cheesman Park Strangler.
Thanks for reading and check out The Witches Wardrobe to spookify your style. Your support goes to fund the adventures of The Forgotten Grimoire.
