Fort Pena Colorado Cemetery
just outside Marathon30.18283, -103.26003
Camp Peña Colorado, originally known as Cantonment Peña Colorado, was a post of the United States Army for almost fifteen years in the late 1800s. It was located about four miles southwest of the site of present-day Marathon in north central Brewster County. The post was built on Peña Colorada Creek near a large spring and beneath a high bluff called Peña Colorada (Spanish for "red rock," known also in English as Rainbow Cliffs), after which the creek, spring, and the army post itself were named (though the namers were not fastidious about Spanish grammatical gender). Camp Peña Colorado was finally abandoned in late January 1893.
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes/Inscriptions |
|---|---|---|---|
| W A Alexander | unknown | 1884 | Outlaw W.A. Alexander who was killed by the soldiers at the Post in 1884 |
| Kemp M Ball | 1881 | 1883 | Drowned in the present day swimming hole |
| Gertrude Granger | 1892 | 1895 | d/o W.L. Granger; Her dress caught on fire from a washpot fire and she burned to death. |
| Elkanak M Herreford | 19 Mar 1815 | 6 Aug 1886 | Born in Mississippi; killed by Jim Davenport who was later killed himself. Mr. Herreford planted the cottonwood trees at the Post. |
| William Early "Willie" Jones | 1877 | 1896 | Willie is buried in the old civilian cemetery at Fort Pena - not in the Marathon Cemetery. |
| James Cunningham Jones | 1846 | 1882 | |
| Alice Victoria Hollingsworth Jones | 1851 | 1886 | |
| Infant Marshall | Birth and death dates unknown; Stillborn c/o Beulah T. Roberts & John A. Marshall who was a soldier at Fort Davis | ||
| Jimmy Moody | a young boy, birth and death dates unknown | ||
| Guy Peake | 1892 | 1895 | Both May & Guy died at the same time and are buried in the same grave. Their father was an Englishman who was a firefighter. The year 1892 was May "Birdie" Peake's date of birth, not Guy's. Guy was born in Woolwich, Kent, England, in 1881, as per below. May was born at Fort Peña Colorado. Both were the children of Tom Walter Peake and Laura Derry Peake. |
| May "Birdie" Peake | 1892 | 1895 | Both May & Guy died at the same time and are buried in the same grave. Their father was an Englishman who was a firefighter. |
| Lue Simpson | unknown | 1892 | Bitten by a rabid skunk while digging a well and died. |
| Family Unknown | Family Of Three, Name Unknown; Child fell in the present day swimming hole. The mother tried to save the child and the father tried to save them both. All three drowned. The family was just passing through and camped at the Post.Birth and death dates unknown. |