Mount Silverheels

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Mount Silverheels

Mount Silverheels from Boreas Pass.
Elevation 13,829 ft (4,215 m) NAVD 88[1]
Prominence 2,283 ft (696 m)[2]
Location
Mount Silverheels
Colorado
Location Park County, Colorado, U.S.
Range Front Range
Coordinates 39°20′21″N 106°00′19″W / 39.33917°N 106.00528°W / 39.33917; -106.00528Coordinates: 39°20′21″N 106°00′19″W / 39.33917°N 106.00528°W / 39.33917; -106.00528[3]
Topo map USGS Alma
Climbing
Easiest route hike

Mount Silverheels, elevation 13,829 ft (4,215 m), is a summit in the Front Range of central Colorado. The mountain is located between Breckenridge and Fairplay in the Pike National Forest of Park County. Mount Silverheels one of the 637 thirteeners in Colorado and the 96th highest peak in the state.[4]

Mount Silverheels is just east of two fourteeners: Mount Bross and Mount Lincoln.

Legend of Silverheels

The mountain was named for Silverheels, a dance hall girl in the nearby mining camp of Buckskin Joe. She was nicknamed "Silverheels" because of the silver shoes she wore in the dance halls.

Legend has it that in 1861 a smallpox epidemic hit the small camp. Most of the miners stayed for fear of claim jumpers. Most of the women and children fled to Denver; but Silverheels stayed. She nursed her friends and neighbors through the disease.[3] Soon, she caught the disease and managed to struggle through. But the small pox scarred her beautiful face and she ran into her cabin located at the base of Mount Silverheels. Once the epidemic was over, the miners that survived raised money for her as thanks. They soon had raised $5,000. Upon taking it to her cabin, the miners discovered that she was no longer there. Her cabin appeared deserted. Many believed that she had hidden because the smallpox had left her so scarred. The money was returned to the miners, but many still wanted to show thanks, so the nearby mountain was named after her. Several years later when Buckskin Joe was run down and the gold rush over, someone claimed to have seen a black veiled woman placing flowers on the graves of those who died in the 1861 smallpox epidemic. Even today, people claim to see a black veiled woman wandering around Buckskin Joe cemetery.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Silverheels ET". NGS data sheet. U.S. National Geodetic Survey. Retrieved 2013-01-20. 
  2. ↑ "Mount Silverheels, Colorado". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2013-01-20. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Mount Silverheels". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved 2013-06-02. 
  4. ↑ "Colorado 13,700-foot Peaks". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2013-01-20. 
  5. ↑ Brown, Robert L. Ghost Towns of the Colorado Rockies. Caxton Press. pp. 71–73. Retrieved 2013-01-20. 

External links

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