Pine Gulch Cemetery History

The land on which Pine Gulch Cemetery resides was originally part of a homestead. Asahel & Sarah Smith came to Colorado after marrying in Missouri in 1861. By the late 1870s, they and their 5 children had moved to the area we now know as Pine Junction.  They settled on a property and began creating their home and ranch. While putting down roots their son Samuel died at only 8 years old. They buried him on the property, memorializing his life with a pure, white marble headstone engraved with a lamb that symbolized his brief, innocent life. Another child, Nettie Combs, in the area died in the same month of diphtheria and was buried nearby. These 2 deaths were among a rash of other children who died of the same epidemic that year.

A few years later, Asahel filed for a 160 acre homestead (formally known as a Land Patent) and it was issued to him on June 30, 1886.  With the land secured as theirs, Asahel and Sarah carved out a portion of their property on April 12, 1890 to be a cemetery.  They deeded 1.5 acres for $1, forming the Pine Grove Cemetery Association. The trustees were all fellow homesteaders –  Asahel Smith, William Combs and Walter Fleming – and the document was notarized by Charles Dake, the founder of Pine Grove. An eternal resting place was now established for their neighbors and fellow pioneers.

A mere 3 years later, Asahel’s wife died at the age of 52 and was buried alongside her son. William Combs one of the cemetery trustees, rests here too (buried in 1902). Asahel chose a different path after Sarah’s death and left Colorado to be with his son in El Paso Texas. He died and was buried there in 1900.

Pine Grove Cemetery was later renamed to Pine Gulch cemetery and continues as an active cemetery today. It is maintained in a natural state as a mountain-style fair mount cemetery with family plots in structured rows combined with graves in unstructured locations – all nestled amongst towering pine trees and mountain views.