Really not sure how to feel about this eye-opener of a story. To be fair, I guess we don't really ever know for sure what was where we are now, hundreds of years ago, regardless of how detailed the records may be. Pics or no proof, right?

Turns out a pretty large section of Denver used to be used as cemeteries back in the mid to late 1800s. Only thing is, the records about what was where and when are somewhat sketchy.

According to Fox 31 in Denver, the area between 32nd and 29th Avenues to the north and south, and Zuni and Tejon Streets on the east and west used to be called the Acacia Cemetery. They closed this cemetery in the late 1870s and moved many of those bodies to what was then called City Cemetery.

This is where the confusion occurs. In 1890, Congress grated approval to the City of Denver to convert what was then City Cemetery into a park, and by 1893 burials had stopped. The Denver Parks commission notified families of those buried in the City Cemetery that the bodies needed to be moved within 90 days.

According to records - pardon the pun - "dug up" by Fox 31, 788 bodies were moved from City Cemetery to Riverside Cemetery, but the records say there were far, far more than that needing to be moved.

Today, they say based on what records they are able to string together, there are likely hundreds or even thousands of bodies left underground in the old City Cemetery, with a park built on top of them.

In fact, in 2008 during a construction project for a new parking garage, human remains were unearthed and re-located. The park and the area around it has a long history you may not have ever heard before.

So which park is it? Cheesman Park, right there by the Denver Botanical Gardens.

10 Facts You May Not Know About Colorado’s Oldest Operating Cemetery

Did you know Colorado's oldest operating cemetery dates back to the same year Colorado became a state? Cheesman Park may have been Denver's first cemetery, but it's the cemetery at Riverside that earns the distinction of being the oldest one still in operation in Colorado.

Gallery Credit: Wesley Adams

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