Fagan's Grave on the Cherokee Trail

Even before the great Pike€s Peak Gold Rush of 1859, there were reports of a fresh grave that lay beside the Cherokee Trail in what is now central Colorado. It contained the body of a man named Fagan, a scout or soldier of some kind, who froze to death during a snowstorm in 1858. His grave was covered with light-colored rocks that gleamed in the moonlight and flashed a warning to all who traveled the old trail. There were those who claimed that the teamster had been buried alive; his ghost, they said, could still be seen riding with the wind on the backs of buffalo or wild horses. Others spoke in hushed whispers of a strange figure, dressed in full army uniform and with musket in hand, who would materialize in the dark to stand sentinel over the lonely grave.