Headle leads students in community project
When Barbara Headle, senior instructor, History Department at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and her students learned the Fairview Cemetery in Fountain had been the target of vandals, they reacted with anger then channeled that into energy. Headle and student Kim Sweetwood joined forces with community leaders to create the Friends of Fountain Fairview Cemetery and the first cemetery “crawl,” scheduled for Saturday.
About 20 UCCS students volunteered to lead tours through the cemetery, some dressing in period clothing and giving interpretations based on their research of those who are buried in the cemetery. Proceeds from a $10 admission fee, and a silent auction of the students’ photographs taken as part of Headle’s summer 2012 history class, will be used to restore headstones and buy security equipment. The silent auction will be at the Fountain Library and will run concurrently with the cemetery tour.
This summer, city leaders allowed a class of UCCS history and geography students to visit the cemetery this summer, to take pictures and map a portion of the cemetery. The students were learning a lesson in using headstones as primary sources and, as Headle says, “seeing what can happen when you get outside of the classroom and away from a computer.”
Led by Mike Larkin, instructor of geography and environmental studies, students used geography methods to learn mapping techniques as well as how to identify various stone types. These methods help historians tell a more complete history of a community. They also researched the history of those buried at Fairview, many of whom were prominent settlers in the 1870s. Also buried at Fairview are those who died in train wrecks or who were killed helping build the railroads that expanded access to the region. Still others died as a result of epidemics such smallpox. The cemetery began as a privately owned site and later was deeded to the city of Fountain.
Headle and Sweetwood are teaming with the city of Fountain, the Fountain Valley Foundation, Fountain Valley Historical Society and Museum, the Fountain Valley Preservation Association, VFW Post 6461, the Fountain Valley Community Activity and Nutrition, the Pikes Peak Library District Fountain Branch and the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce to create the cemetery crawl.