Mount Silverheels

Mount Silverheels
Mount Silverheels from Boreas Pass.
Elevation	13,829 ft (4,215 m) [1]
Prominence	2,283 ft (696 m) [2]
Location
Location	Park County, Colorado, USA
Range	Front Range
Coordinates	39°20′22″N 106°0′19″W / 39.33944°N 106.00528°W / 39.33944; -106.00528[3]
Topo map	USGS Alma TopoQuest

Mount Silverheels is a mountain in Colorado, one of the 637 peaks above 13,000 feet (3,962 m) in elevation in the state (see thirteeners). It is located in the Front Range in Park County, Colorado between Breckenridge and Fairplay, within the Pike National Forest. It is the 96th highest peak in Colorado.^[2]

Mount Silverheels is just east of two fourteeners: Mount Bross and Mount Lincoln.

Legend of Silverheels

The mountain was named for Silverheels, a dance hall girl in the nearby mining camp of Buckskin Joe. She was nicknamed "Silverheels" because of the silver shoes she wore in the dance halls.

Legend has it that in 1861 a smallpox epidemic hit the small camp. Most of the miners stayed for fear of claim jumpers. Most of the women and children fled to Denver; but Silverheels stayed. She nursed her friends and neighbors through the disease. Soon, she caught the disease and managed to struggle through. But the small pox scarred her beautiful face and she ran into her cabin located at the base of Mount Silverheels. Once the epidemic was over, the miners that survived raised money for her as thanks. They soon had raised $5,000. Upon taking it to her cabin, the miners discovered that she was no longer there. Her cabin appeared deserted. Many believed that she had hidden because the smallpox had left her so scarred. The money was returned to the miners, but many still wanted to show thanks, so the nearby mountain was named after her. Several years later when Buckskin Joe was run down and the gold rush over, someone claimed to have seen a black veiled woman placing flowers on the graves of those who died in the 1861 smallpox epidemic. Even today, people claim to see a black veiled woman wandering around Buckskin Joe cemetery.^[4]

See also

• Colorado 4000 meter peaks
• Front Range
• Mountain peaks of Colorado
• Mountain peaks of North America
• Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains
• Mountain peaks of the United States
• Mountain ranges of Colorado
• Southern Rocky Mountains
• Thirteener

References

1. ^ NAVD 88 elevation from the National Geodetic Survey
2. ^ ^{a b} "Colorado's Summits - 13,000 to 13,999". http://www.climb.mountains.com/Project_Island_files/CO_13ers.shtml. Retrieved 2008-02-27. 
3. ^ NAD 83 coordinates from the National Geodetic Survey
4. ^ "Mount Silverheels Trail". http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/psicc/recreation/trails/spk_mount_silverheels.shtml. Retrieved 2008-02-28.