Colorado Spirit Quest: Grand Lake Pioneers Multi-Cache

Colorado Spirit Quest:

Grand Lake Pioneers

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The Colorado Spriit Quest is a series of caches placed near cemeteries to pay respect to the many pioneers & ancestors who walked here before us. There are hundreds of historic cemeteries in rural and mountain communities across Colorado. After finding the first stage of this cache, please take time to reflect on the lives of these pioneers, and what it took to make Colorado such a great state.  This series is inspired by, but not affiliated with, other Spirit Quest groups, beginning with the Indiana Spirit Quest group in 2004.

The Grand Lake Cemetery is on land originally belonging to these pioneers, and now owned by the National Park Service & as part of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is operated by long-term permit with the Town of Grand Lake. Permission for the virtual stage given by RMNP Supervisory Rangers

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This is a multi-stage cache: Stage 1 is a Virtual Cache at the Grand Lake Cemetery, with the clues for the final to be found within the Cemetery. The actual (final) cache container is outside of RMNP, along the road about 1/2 mile away.  

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Final Stage:    N40 1A.BCD W 105 5D.XYZ

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Among the many pioneers around Grand Lake, the Harbison Family was quite prominant in the early days of this valley. Andrew K Harbison was born in Philadelphia, moved to Rockport, Missouri, where he married Mary Quinlan on December 4, 1867. Together they had 3 children, Annie Eliza, Kittie D, and Robert A Harbison. The couple continued their westward move to Nebraska, where Annie was born; then to Kansas where Kittie and Robert were born, and eventually to Denver by 1889, where Andrew had a soap rendering business. By 1896, Andrew had already filed once for land in Colorado under the Homestead Act, and was not eligible to file again for land near Grand Lake. Both the girls, now in their twenties, each filed for claims. Kitty took up a quarter-section and Annie took one adjoining her sister's claim along the "North Fork" of the river, about 2.5 miles north of Grand Lake. Each built their cabins on their own claim, but along the edges of their claims, and were not more than 100 feet apart. Their mother, Mary, & brother Robert, arrived in the valley in November, and built the "Big Cabin" in between the two individual cabins, where the whole family lived.

The sisters "worked like men", cutting and stacking hay, roped the horses and fed & milked their sizable diary herd before getting younger brother Rob out of bed to deliver milk and butter around Grand Lake in his horse-drawn cart. The sisters devoted their lives to their parents, care of the ranch, and service to others. By 1905, they began taking in summer guests at the ranch, gradually adding tourist cabins. Their Sunday dinners were legendary, and the talk of Grand Lake. In 1907, they opened their home to two foster daughters, Mamie & Beatrice Schooner. Mamie's help would be invaluable in later years. The "Harbison Girls" were a large part of pioneer life of Grand Lake country, known and loved by many. It is said that their friends "were countless".

Stricken with pneumonia, the two sisters died within days of each other. Their double-funeral service was held in the Grand Lake Community House, and they were buried together in the family plot in the cemetery on the hillside above Grand Lake. Today, their meadow is empty, their houses are gone, the road abandoned. Only their headstones & stories remain.

For the Final Stage: N40 1A.BCD W 105 5D. XYZ

Find the markers:

Annie & Kitty Harbison:  Their birthdays were 11 days apart, not counting the years. They died just A days apart, in 19C8, and were buried together here.

Robert A. Harbison + Murnie M. Harbison: Robert was born in 18B X.

A.K. Harbison & Mary E. Harbison, the parents: Mary was born in 183Y. Andrew died in 19D X.  He served in Compny D, PA Voluntary Regiment 18Z 

Please take a moment and consider the efforts it took to ranch here, long before Trail Ridge Road was built and maintained, as it is today.

http://GrandLakeHistory.org/grand-lake-history/people/harbison-family/

www.NPS.gov/ROMO/Harbison_Ranch.htm 

Headstones on site 

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