The Masonic Cemetery sits on a knoll above Central City, off the road to Nevadaville, in Gilpin County. Central City began in 1859 after John H. Gregory struck gold in Gregory Gulch. Miners followed, and so did deaths from cave-ins, dust, cold, and accident. The cemetery was laid out in the early 1860s, with family plots and a Masonic section overlooking the gulch. The haunting attached to it is the Lady in Black. The record supports a mining-town graveyard. The woman in the satin dress is a story told about one stone.
A 2008 survey counted a little over 200 marked records, with broken and missing markers from weather more than vandalism. The fences were in decent repair, and the City of Central City has been listed as the caretaker. Elevation is about 8,780 feet. The view is the reason people stop even if they have no interest in ghosts.
The Lady in Black is the local legend. Tellers say a woman in a black Victorian dress appears at the grave of John Edward Cameron, a Freemason, and leaves flowers. The dates given are April 5 and November 1. November 1 is said to be the anniversary of his death. Sources disagree on the year, some saying 1885 and some 1887, and on the cause, often “paralysis of the heart.” One version makes him a bachelor whose affections were set on a woman near Bald Mountain. Another says she planted a rosebush by the stone, stopped coming after the sexton removed it in 1888, and was seen again two years later with a bouquet of columbines before vanishing toward the mountain.
A further telling claims that twelve people waited at the grave, saw her at sunset, and watched her vanish when two men tried to grab her. That episode is folklore repeated on ghost sites. It is not a newspaper account with names and a date. No one has identified the woman in the burial record.
Other reports are the usual set for an old mountain cemetery: orbs in photos, a cold spot, a drained battery, a whisper on a recorder. Orbs at this altitude are often dust, breath, or bugs in a flash. None of it has been verified.
The cemetery is above the casino parking, on Prosser Street off Nevadaville Road, just before the Victorian core of Central City. It is a real burial ground on a windy hill, not a closed attraction. Stay on the paths, do not lean on stones, and do not treat a Masonic plot as a set. Weather turns fast above 8,000 feet, and dusk comes early in the gulch.
The history here is the 1859 gold strike and the miners buried on the hill. The Lady in Black is the story people attached to John Cameron’s stone.
This image is from a 5280 visit to Central City Cemetery, the hillside burial ground off Nevadaville Road. Iron fencing, aspens, and a Civil War–era stone are typical of that ridge.
Central City: Central City Cemetery – 5280
More specific stone photos are on these pages rather than in general image search:
- Find a Grave: Masonic Cemetery, Central City — gate, fencing, and member-uploaded grave photos.
- WikiTree: Masonic Cemetery, Central City — 2016 photos of individual stones, including a Masonic pin on one marker.
- Denver Public Library: Muriel Sibell Wolle negative — a 1933–1970 view of a child’s stone at the Masonic cemetery, captioned “Little Matty.”
Relevant links
- Colorado Cemeteries survey — location, marker count, and the Cameron flower tradition
- Legends of America: Gilpin County — the April 5 and November 1 telling
- FamilySearch cemetery record — a starting point for names actually buried there
- Haunted Rooms America note — the bachelor-and-Bald-Mountain version of the legend