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Pioneer Cemetery

Date Photographed: May 8, 2001
Marked Burials: 3
Volunteer: Linda Vixie
Special Thanks: Matthew Blake, assistant golf pro, Shining Mountain Golf Club; John McKay

This small pioneer cemetery is located on land owned by the company that operates the Shining Mountain Golf Club at this site. To reach it, from Woodland Park, drive north about 2.25 miles on Highway 67. Turn left on Shining Mountain Lane, the entrance to the golf course. The two remaining markers and other unmarked gravesites are on a knoll north of the green on the par-five second hole. Because of the site's elevation, it isn't easily visible from the golf course, although golfers trying to reach the green by cutting off the dogleg may run across the markers as they search for their ball. According to GPS-derived geolocation (accurate to within 10 meters), the cemetery's coordinates are 39°01'05.0"N and 105°04'33.0"W at an elevation of 8,222 feet.

The course opened in 1994 as Woodland Park Fujiki Golf and Country Club, and the original management removed the two markers and stored them in a shed. Since April 2000, it has operated as Shining Mountain Golf Club. The new management had been experiencing a string of bad luck, and an employee, a native of Hawaii, suggested that the tombstones be restored to their original positions. In the spring of 2001, the employee's mother sent leis from Hawaii to honor the markers as they were reinstalled.

In addition to the two markers that remain, there's a base to a marker and several sunken areas that mark sites of other burials. Carol Loudermilk-Edwards's 1983 book Teller County, Colorado, Church and Cemetery Records lists the same three marked graves, so anything that has disappeared was gone by then. The Ute Pass Historical Society's Woodland Park History Notebook, chapter 14, page 1, lists the additional grave of Ed Moore, marked with a steel stake and a six-by-eight-inch frame, but the source is unknown and the grave is currently unmarked. Colorado Cemetery Directory lists the cemetery as the Pioneer or Templeton Cemetery in Section 14, Township 12 South, Range 69 West, however, it is in Section 11 of the indicated township. It estimates there were originally 20 to 30 graves here.

The course may be contacted at 100 Shining Mountain Lane, Woodland Park, CO 80863-7704; phone: (719) 687-7587. In 2001 management said it would take legitimately interested persons to the cemetery in a course vehicle.

A.G. Templeton is Andrew Jackson Templeton, who came to the Pikes Peak region from Illinois in 1859. According to the 1880 census, he was born ca. 1828-29 in Tennessee. Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum records put his death at 1909. His unpublished manuscript "Life and Reminiscences of Andrew J. Templeton" is at the Pioneers Museum. Templeton Gap road in Colorado Springs is named for him. Templeton, Lacy, and Workman all homesteaded land in Township 12 South, Range 69 West. Lacy received her patent January 30, 1896, Workman received his April 21, 1888, and Templeton on April 14, 1891 by cash sale.

Templeton

Update: In 2006, a check of the Teller County Assessor's online Property Records Database showed that the 4.96-acre tract of land for this cemetery was separated from the golf course in 2000. Its legal description is "11-12-69 TR LAND W2SE4 PVT CEMTERY SITE FOR ISABELLE MOORE." The owner was Matrix Capital Bank of Denver. The golf course owner declared bankruptcy in 2005 and the course was to be sold at auction for failure to pay taxes.