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Visiting the Grave of Silas Soule
Silas Soule refused orders to fire upon the Native encampment at Sand Creek, and he was murdered for telling the truth about the massacre.
Copyright © 2024 by Ari Armstrong
August 10, 2023; ported here August 3, 2024
Silas Soule refused orders to fire upon the Native encampment at Sand Creek, and he was murdered for telling the truth about the massacre. See my recent column for Complete Colorado about this.
As Soule is buried at the Riverside Cemetery near the Suncor oil refinery in Commerce City, I figured I would pay a visit to his grave site. By way of background: "The Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes visit the grave of Silas Soule every year [or at least sometimes] during the annual Healing Run to honor victims of the Sand Creek Massacre." See also the Hello Graves episode about Soule.
The cemetery is much larger than I expected. There's no way I could have found the grave site on my own. Unfortunately, the office building at the cemetery, which is run by the nonprofit Fairmount Cemetery Company, was closed. Fortunately, as I was mulling about out front wondering how to proceed, someone came out of the office and gave me directions to "where the soldiers are buried." For reference, Soule's grave is found in section 27, a few yards to the right of the flagpole as you face the back fence.
The cemetery is in rough shape. Mostly it is a giant, barely-mowed weed patch. You can see refinery buildings in the background as well as the skyline of Denver.
Soule is buried beneath a plain grave in the middle of other soldiers' tombstones.
Here's his tombstone. The sign next to the grave says people ought not leave coins or trinkets, but people just ignore that.
Here's me beside the grave. (My son went with me and took the photo.)
I wasn't quite sure how to mark the occasion, so I removed my hat and said something like, "Thank you, Silas Soule, for revealing the truth about the Sand Creek Massacre and for helping to free slaves." (Soule was born to an Abolitionist family that helped run the Underground Railroad.)
As I concluded my column, "In the end, Soule lost his life for doing what was right. Whatever Soule's faults, his courage puts him among Colorado's great heroes."