Index cut-off date: September 2001
Order: Section, Block, Row, Plot
Sunnyside Cemetery is located west of Victor, a city that sprang up after the 1890 discovery of gold in the district. From Victor Avenue, turn west at Seventh Street on the north end of Victor. Drive about 0.9 mile down the dirt road to the entrance of the cemetery. According to GPS-derived geolocation (accurate to within 10 meters), the cemetery's coordinates are 38°42'07.5"N and 105°09'17.8"W.
The cemetery is unique in that its residents are granted only the "surface ground." Deeper, one finds portions of the Hattie W. lode, the Cemetery lode, the Robert E. Lee lode, and the Anny B. lode, all now inactive Teller County gold mines. One wonders if they could indeed "rest in peace," with all the rumblings from below!
Like the town of Victor, Sunnyside Cemetery has seen better days. The natural ground cover includes wild grasses, wild rose bushes, and other bushes and trees. Golden aspens on the mountain flanks are spectacular in the fall. Hundreds of graves are unmarked or are guarded by wooden markers from which all inscription has disappeared. The many fenced areas reserved for burials of fraternal society members speak to the community's strong social structure.
The earliest recorded burial is that of three-year-old Maggie Ferrans, who died April 26, 1891. Her father and brother, James and Robert Ferrans, suffered the fate of many in this community, when they died in a mining accident on May 1, 1900. The first recorded information about this cemetery comes in 1894, when the Victor city council announced the members of the cemetery committee: William J. Gower, Henry Bush, and H. H. Williams. And on July 11, 1902, Lee W. Davis, a civil engineer in Victor, started the Sunnyside Cemetery Association and served as its first president. The cemetery was originally platted by this association, and the burials are generally in rows. This association is now defunct, and no sexton records exist. Victor residents care for the grounds. (Historical research by Veldean Petri.)
Much more recently, tragedy touched the cemetery. On the evening of May 15, 1998, 35-year-old Mark Butts was beaten to death in the cemetery by four men wielding a shovel. His body was hidden some distance from the cemetery and wasn't found for about two weeks.
In 2008 the Cripple Creek/Victor Mine, at the request of Sunnyside Cemetery volunteer Veldean Petrie, ran ground-penetrating radar outside the present fence. Ms. Petrie thought pauper graves may be located outside the cemetery and she was correct; an additional approximate 50 or more graves were located and are currently [2009] identified with small neon pink flags.
Because the PPGS volunteers did not have access to maps or sexton records, section, block, row, and plot numbers were created and assigned to the existing markers. Some rows aren't straight and locations are estimates, but the relative locations are close and should allow users of this database to find markers of interest.
The cemetery was previously transcribed and published in Teller County, Colorado, Church and Cemetery Records by Carol Loudermilk-Edwards (Westminster, Colo.: Carol Loudermilk-Edwards, 1983), and Residents of Sunnyside Cemetery, Victor, Colorado, and Fourmile Cemetery, Fourmile Community, CO, 1875-1988 by Miralyn S. Keske (Victor, Colo.: Keske Publishing Company, 1989). The PPGS database was compared with the Keske transcription and all discrepancies were checked.
Sunnyside Cemetery Layout:
All rows run from north to south.
EM East Middle Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
ER Elks Rest Row 1 begins at the NE corner; row numbers increase to west
FOE Fraternal Order of Eagles Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
MC Middle Central Row 1 begins at the NE corner; row numbers increase to west
MN Middle North Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
A Unfenced area Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
B Unfenced area Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
KP Knights of Pythias Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
MAS Masonic section Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
MOO Loyal Order of Moose Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
ODD Odd Fellows Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
ROY Roy-Myers fenced lot Row 1 begins at the NE corner; row numbers increase to west
MS Middle South Row 1 begins at the NE corner; row numbers increase to west
NE Northeast Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
NW Northwest Row 1 begins at the NE corner; row numbers increase to west
SE Southeast Row 1 begins at the NW corner; row numbers increase to east
SW Southwest Row 1 begins at the NE corner; row numbers increase to west
WM West Middle Row 1 begins at the NE corner; row numbers increase to west
©2014 Pikes Peak Genealogical Society
