Leadville Irish Miners' Memorial

Over 1300 thousand Irish and other immigrants, buried in unmarked, sunken graves, will soon be honored in an unveiling of the artfully landscaped and curated "Leadville Irish Miners' Memorial" in the Catholic Free (Pauper) section of Leadville, Colorado's Evergreen Cemetery. Those men, women, and children were a proud working-class community. About one-third of them hailed from the copper mining regions of West Cork, Ireland, and many others from counties such as Tipperary, Waterford, Kerry, Mayo, and Donegal.

Miners were hired for back-breaking work that earned them a meagre $3 a day to support their families. They faced exceptionally high death rates due to poor working and living conditions typical of mining camps at the time. The average age of death among those buried in the Catholic Free (Pauper) section of Leadville's Evergreen Cemetery was 23 years, and roughly half of those buried in unmarked graves are children.

In Summer of 2020, Irish Network Colorado (INCO), in conjunction with other community partners, began construction of Phase I of this project which will memorialize those who have been named and those who remain nameless. Most of those brave people who came to Leadville were children of the Famine and came in search of better lives; many never had a chance to see their dreams come true.

INCO is leading the effort in the construction coordination and the fundraising efforts for the project. Phase I will be comprised of a spiral walkway, affording the visitor the opportunity to pause and reflect upon the setting. The centerpiece of the spiral walkway will culminate in bronze sculpture depicting a miner on bended knee. Glass panels will display the names of the previously unnamed souls who are buried in the graveyard.

Please consider supporting this effort to honor the memory of those Irish immigrants who came to Colorado in search of a better life, who died here trying to find it, and who deserve not to be forgotten. Do something in this life for those who were forgotten in a former life.

The Irish Network Colorado (INCO) is a network of Irish immigrants, Irish Americans and "friends of Ireland." INCO is dedicated to fostering the creativity, industry and success of Ireland's diaspora, and offers its members access to business opportunities, and cultural and social connections. INCO recognizes the importance of naming the unnamed miners and their families thru the memorial. For more information, please go to our website https://www.irishnetworkco.com/

INCO is grateful to LCCF for their willingness to act as our Fiscal Agent and to the City of Leadville, the Irish Consulate in Austin and the Emmigrant Support Programme of the Irish Government