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Submitted: 11/4/08 • Approved: 11/10/08 • Last Updated: 3/23/17 • R22163-G0-S3
Gravestone Inscription: Thomas Faley Born May 22,1853
Died; Feb. 5, 1888
T. Foley was lost in a snowstorm while going to his mine on
Feb. 5, 1888 and was found June 15, 1888.
Note: The Alma cemetery and Buckskin cemetery are one in the same. The cemetery was originally called the Buckskin cemetery because it was next to the original town of Buckskin Joe, now a ghost town. President Theodore Roosevelt approved the land grant for the cemetery to be used by Alma residents on 3/21/1902, Patent No. 1638.
Source: the following was taken from the Fairplay Flume Newspaper (Fairplay, Park County) dated February 09, 1888 page 4.
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Perished in the Snow.
Sheriff Hall come (sic) down from Alma last evening and furnished us the particulars of the probable death on the mountains of Thomas Faley, a miner who has been generally known about this place. On Sunday, Faley had been drinking a good deal, but was sober enough to go to Wm. Fraser & Co’s. barn, where he mounted a horse about seven o’clock in the evening and set out to return to his work at the Dolly Varden mine. The horse knew the trail well and there was no danger, so long as he kept upon its back. It turned very cold as soon as night fell. In due course, the horse returned to the stable as it is trained to do and nothing more was thought of Faley’s safety until it was learned the next day that he had not reached the mine.
A searching party from the Dolly Varden and from Alma scoured Mt. Bross Tuesday and yesterday in the hope of recovering remains, as it was not believed possible that he had survived so long, but at the time Mr. Hall left Alma, no intelligence had been received. Some tracks were found near timber line and it is thought that Faley got off the horse for some reason and the animal got away, while he wandered off the trial and became lost in the deep snow. It is not unlikely that his body may remain hidden until spring. Faley was a man of between 35 and 40 years. He was single and had a well-to-do brother living in Iowa.
Contributed on 11/4/08 by southparkperils
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Record #: 22163