Baby Doe of Colorado...

G'day mates!

Happy Eve of Memorial Day Weekend!

Today I wanted to write about some fascinating Colorado history...

 Perhaps you've heard of the Tabor legend/fortune of Colorado.  Perhaps you haven't.  At any account, I'd like to present to you: Elizabeth McCourt Tabor...otherwise known by her nickname, Baby Doe.  She is best known for her rags-to-riches and then back to rags lifestyle that even inspired an opera.

Baby Doe

Elizabeth Tabor

Horace Tabor

Called Lizzie as an adolescent, she was the fourth of eleven children.  She was excused from chores as a child, because her mother instilled in her that looks were the greatest worth a women could bring to the table.  She wanted Lizzie to be a starlet (as her father owned a local theatre).  She moved to Colorado in 1870 with her then husband Harvey Doe.  She helped him often in the mines, and her mining clothes were considered scandalous.  They were unsuccessful in mining gold, so Harvey asked Elizabeth to stay home and stop wearing men's clothing.  Harvey apparently loved to dabble in hookers, habitually bellying up to a bar, and gambling (losing money) which led to their divorce.  

Elizabeth moved to Leadville and met a man in a restaurant.  After telling him her story, he gave her $5,000 on the spot.  In a rather scandalous affair, she became the second wife of this famous pioneer, Horace Tabor.  He was a a mining millionaire of silver magnate, twice her age, and did I mention he was mega-loaded!  Plus, Horace divorced his first wife of 25 years to marry Elizabeth (however, Elizabeth and Horace were considered bigamist since there is speculation that his divorce was never legal).  They lived the most lavish of lifestyles until the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (people were melting down coins because the silver was worth more than the currency).  This caused the Panic of 1893 (when many went bankrupt in Colorado and other silver producing regions.)

Horace Tabor built the Tabor Grand Hotel in Leadville, CO (modern day photo)

The Tabor Opera House in Leadville, CO.

Elizabeth went from "Best Dressed of the West" to living in utter poverty in a shake at the site of Matchless Mine.  In a massive snow storm in 1935, Elizabeth was found frozen in her cabin at 81 years of age.

Pop Quiz: Why did her story inspire the opera, "The Ballad of Baby Doe?"

Answer: Because she was the source of much gossip and scandal during her time.  She slayed all Victorian gender values, and garnered the "reputation as one of most beautiful, flamboyant, and alluring women of the mining west.

Baby Doe between 1885 and 1895...

Her gravesite is at a gorgeous cemetery outside of Denver (Wheat Ridge, CO) called Mt. Olivet.  They had to dynamite her grave since the ground was so frozen that winter.

Me at Mt. Olivet Cemetery...

Thanks for stopping in for a little Colorado history!  Leave a comment below to let me know of other fascinating Colorado history you would like for me to research!

Love, 
Kimmie