PERCHED UP ON A HILLSIDE, barely visible from Highway 285, rests the historic Centerville Cemetery off a dead-end county road. Known as Chaffee County’s oldest burial ground, it holds 350 overlooking the beautiful Sawatch Range’s southern tip. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine that peaceful site contains the remains of many who participated in the deadly “Lake County War,” which began on the night of June 17, 1874, and culminated in numerous deaths. According to an August 2014 Colorado Central Magazine article by the late Charles F. Price, “At least ten and perhaps as many as a hundred individuals — no ...
