Helen Hunt Jackson Memorial

Date Photographed: 17 June 2000
Number of Memorials: 2
Volunteer: Linda Vixie
Special Thanks: Seven Falls Co., www.sevenfalls.com

Novelist and poet Helen Hunt Jackson is best remembered for Ramona, a novel described as "a romantic study of Spanish patriarchal life in California [that] immediately became famous for its protest against governmental cruelty to Native Americans."

She was born Helen Maria Fiske on October 14, 1830, in Amherst, Mass. (although the marker here reads 1831). She married first Edward Bissell Hunt (15 June 1822 - 2 October 1863) on October 28, 1852, in Boston. She married second William Sharpless Jackson (16 January 1836 - 4 June 1919) on October 22, 1875. She came to Colorado Springs in 1873 for her health and considered the city her home for the rest of her life. She died August 12, 1885, in San Francisco.

At her request, Jackson was buried October 31, 1885, at Inspiration Point in scenic South Cheyenne Canyon, southwest of Colorado Springs. According to GPS-derived geolocation (accurate to within 10 meters), the memorial's coordinates are latitude 38°46'51.9"N and longitude 104°52'36.7"W. Because the scores of people flocking to her gravesite were threatening the natural beauty of the canyon, her remains were moved to the family plot at Evergreen Cemetery, Colorado Springs, on November 7, 1891. The land is now part of Seven Falls, a privately owned recreation area that charges an entrance fee. The plaque on the large mound of rocks that was her original burial site reads:

IN MEMORY OF HELEN HUNT JACKSON
1831-1885
AND HER BOOK
"RAMONA"
WHICH WAS INSPIRED BY THE BEAUTY
OF THIS SPOT

Oh, write of me, not "Died in bitter pains,"
But "Emigrated to another star!"
~Helen Hunt Jackson

There is also a memorial plaque for a former Seven Falls owner at the Inspiration Point overlook itself:

MELVIN STANLEY WEIMER
FEB. 1, 1905 - MAR. 13, 1982
LIVED IN-LOVED AND OWNED
SEVEN FALLS FOR FORTY YEARS

Map to Seven Falls