Jack’s Cabin Cemetery
Photos and story by Sandra Cortner
Wild roses, purple lupine, scarlet gilia and paintbrush, fleabane, pink
geranium, and brilliant fireweed obscure a dark cow pie. Sure enough, I
squish it while surveying the beauty of Jack’s Cabin Cemetery on a dewy
July morning. The cow pie is not surprising as the Trampe Ranch hay
meadows surround the cemetery, with only twisted wire fences to keep
out the cows. To the south is Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery, to the north:
Crested Butte Mountain.
Many old western cemeteries are usually wild with sagebrush, grass
and flowers and, like Jack’s cabin, perhaps a few elk and deer droppings.
Yet, despite its proximity to the road, this one is pretty much closed for
business, according to Gunnison County officials.
I’ve been visiting the cemetery since the 1970s. Now I live above the
Jack’s Cabin Cut-off Road within sight of it, and nothing except the height
of the trees has changed in the interim. In fact nothing has changed
much since 1963 when Mary J. Bottenfield (“Mama” 1874-1963) joined her
husband Samuel G. (“Daddy” 1872-1957), who was laid to rest with a
Mason insignia on his tombstone. The pair had been married 64 years.
Today, could they hear, they might be startled by the cars whizzing by on
Highway 135, mere steps beyond their plot.
Four other Bottenfields rest there as well, their plots hidden from
travelers by a row of 40-foot-tall pine trees. The trees are watered by the
Richard Ball ditch that parallels the highway. I carefully counted. Five
spruce on one side of the gated entrance and six on the other. Odd.
Surely, they intended the rows to match.
In the center of the cemetery is another tall pine. Irises surround the
roots that are crumbling the plot’s concrete border. The stone reads,
“mother Mary Jane Imobersteg 1858-1897 and son Fredrick D. 1884-1908.”
The cemetery contains 21 marked graves, plus a number of burial sites
outlined by rocks. Probably they were ranch families who lived in the
valley, but none of the names are those of today’s ranchers. Who could
relate their history or point to their former homes? I craved a connection.
I found it in valley residents Joe Danni, Sandy Allen Leinsdorf and Lee
Spann.
Joe, whose grandfather homesteaded just up the road in 1902, said
that he and his late wife, Gwen, used to care for the cemetery. “We’d go
down and pull weeds and clean the trash. We saw that people were
putting flowers on the graves, so we’d put some on, too.” Joe recollected
that rancher Virgil Spann built and maintained the fence. But he was at a
loss to explain why all his Danni ancestors were buried in Gunnison, not
Jack’s Cabin.
He showed me a map that his father drew in 1923 of the ranches in the
area. Many of the surnames match those on the headstones, including
Imobersteg, Lorr, Lucero, Hayes, and S.H. Rider and his wife, Elizabeth A.
(Dec. 29, 1869-July 7, 1907), and their children Blanche E. (Feb. 16, 1892Dec. 21, 1899) and Charles S. (Feb. 3, 1903-March 19, 1904). Only the
Lucero name is familiar to me. Rudy Sedmak, Crested Butte native, once
told me that laid-off miners hired on at the Lucero Ranch to dig potatoes.
Sandy’s Allen family ranch with its distinctive white barn and rolling
pastures lies within sight of the cemetery on the Cut-off Road. Sandy said
that Budgie Bottenfield, cousin to my former Crested Butte neighbor, Lyle
McNeill, used to herd cows for the Allen Ranch and the East River
Cattlemen’s Association. Perhaps those buried are his relatives. When I
asked about Edith (1894-1918) and James J. Ogden (1898-1920) and their
baby, she only knew that their property is now a part of the Trampe
Ranch. “Baby Allen” under one of the markers is not of her family, she
said.
Joe, too, knew Budgie, but not any other Bottenfields. “I remember Lyle
used to come down here to care for the Bottenfield graves.” Later I found
my photo from 1971, which shows tall crimson Oriental poppies blooming
at the Bottenfield plot, probably planted by Lyle and his wife Mildred with
seeds from their own garden.
I e-mailed Lyle’s granddaughter Michelle Starika Asakawa, who found
a box of family photos and replied. “Mary J. (Jane) Bottenfield was the
sister of my great-grandmother Henrietta (Stobbs) McNeill (Lyle's mother).
Michelle’s photocopies from Lyle’s scrapbook arrived the day I met
Joe Danni for a stroll through the cemetery. It was his first visit there since
losing his wife. He walked from fence to fence pointing out depressions
and scattered rocks that once outlined gravesites. We found a pink
wildflower blooming among them that neither of us could identify.
Afterwards, we sat in my car and marveled at the group shot of Mary
J. and Samuel G. Bottenfield on their 60th wedding anniversary circa 1953.
In the back row are Lyle, Budgie, and a number of other unidentified
relatives. Ten-year-old Michelle stands in front. Months later, thanks to a
conversation I’d had at the summer Crested Butte Reunion, I met Lynell
Arnott via e-mail, who sent more Bottenfield history. She is a great
granddaughter of Shadrach and Sarah McCormick Bottenfield. Shadrach
was a Civil War veteran from Ohio, who grazed his cattle on BLM land
near Jack’s Cabin. He must be buried the etched headstone, “S.M.
Bottenfield-Sgt Co D; 27 Ohio Infantry.”
My final visit was with Lee Spann. Lee is the family patriarch of
Spann Ranches—the Y-Bar across the highway from the Danni Ranch,
another further up valley, and a third in Delta. I thought I only needed to
talk to him for a couple of minutes at the end of his busy day haying.
However, one answer led to another question, and by the end of our 45minute phone conversation, we were joking about writing a book. Only I
don’t think he was joking.
According to Lee, John Howe, the “Jack” of Jack’s Cabin and his sister
Mary Ett Lorr homesteaded what they called Howeville in 1875. Their land
bordered Country Road 817, known as the Jack’s Cabin Cut-off Road. By
researching records in the Gunnison County Courthouse, Lee discovered
that when Mary Ett Lorr willed half her property to her son, John Lyman
Lorr, an acre was dedicated as a public cemetery. Born Feb. 10, 1858, she
was the first burial in her cemetery in 1899. Her son’s gravestone beside
hers reads, “John L. Lorr, Born April 7, 1872-Died July 9, 1932.”
John’s daughter, Esther Lorr Verzuh, married Rudy Verzuh, Crested
Butte’s long time postmaster. She inherited the cemetery and with Lee’s
help turned it over to the Gunnison Cemetery District on July 10, 2001. The
District’s Board agreed to “maintain the Jack’s Cabin Cemetery in its
natural state…”
Lee shed more light on those buried there. Mary Lucero taught Lee’s
dad Virgil and uncle Aubrey Spann at the Jack’s Cabin school at the
corner of Highway 135 and the Cut-off Road. Mrs. Lucero’s daughter,
Mary (1900-1911) and several members of the family died of meningitis.
The Lucero family homesteaded what today is known as the Roaring Judy
Ranch, owned by Mary Frame and Nick Lypps, relative newcomers to the
valley (early 1970s). Mary owns the old school site as well, living there for
several years until a fire destroyed the historic building.
Several weeks after my conversation with Lee, I hiked with Mary Frame
to the remains of S.H. Rider’s Howeville Dairy at the foot of Round
Mountain—a barn, house, cistern and spring. On the way back, she
pointed out a crumbling foundation, all that remains of the Lucero home.
The Imoberstegs turn out to be Lee’s great-grandparents. In 1880, Mary
Jane Imobersteg and her husband, Robert settled on what is now the
Reserve a few miles up the road from the Y-Bar Ranch. Fredrick D. was
one of their nine children. After dying of scarlet fever, Frederick was buried
on the ranch, as was customary at the time. Years later, his and his
mother’s remains were moved to the new cemetery.
And the missing pine tree? Thanks to Mary Jane Imobersteg’s daughter
Olive, six on each side of the gate were planted June 12, 1935, during a
picnic to dress up the cemetery. “I remember the date,” said Lee, a
toddler at the time, “because that’s when Esther and Rudy Verzuh’s son
was born. The whole county was invited and on that same day, Olive
planted the pine tree over Mary Jane and Fredrick D.’s grave.” After they
were planted, some scroundrel stole one of the trees.
The one mystery we haven’t solved yet was why there are no other
Spanns or Imoberstegs buried at the cemetery. Ah, another puzzle to
pursue for the book.
Author of “Crested Butte Stories…Through My Lens,” Sandra is on a new
quest. If you have any Jack’s Cabin Stories, e-mail her at
scortner@crestedbutte.net.