Who chose the name Buena Vista? A Chaffee County Times history credits Sadie Alsina Dearheimer with picking it. The same history says she wanted it said the English way, and that her family ran a bakery and built the town's first frame house. On Friday evening, Oct. 30, a costumed interpreter playing her will be telling her story at Mount Olivet Cemetery during a lantern-lit tour.
Halloween is a Saturday this year, but most of what Buena Vista has planned happens the night before. Friday has the kids' trick-or-treating on East Main, live music downtown, the only Halloween-weekend tour Buena Vista Heritage puts on at Mount Olivet, and the opening concert of the Surf Hotel's first Halloween takeover. Saturday has fewer events, and one of them is already partly sold out.
Friday, Oct. 30, hour by hour
The Friday events barely overlap, so a family or a couple can string them together without missing much.
| Time | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. | Trick or Treat Street, run by the Buena Vista Chamber of Commerce | East Main Street |
| Late afternoon into evening | Live music with Noel Hogan on violins | Terrace on Main |
| 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. | Buena Vista Heritage lantern tour | Mount Olivet Cemetery, 257 CR 321 |
| 7:15 p.m. | The Polish Ambassador, "Dead Polish Phish" | Surf Hotel |
Trick or Treat Street is short. It's listed at 45 minutes in the middle of the afternoon, so it ends long before dark. That leaves the evening for the cemetery tour, which only runs for an hour and starts at a set time. The Chamber's listings show two different set times for Noel Hogan at Terrace on Main, so check with the venue before planning around that one.
Thursday, Oct. 29, is the last day to buy tour tickets online. Buena Vista Heritage closes online sales the day before each tour. After that, you can buy tickets in person at the Historic Courthouse Museum or with cash at the cemetery gate. Tickets cost $10.
Why Mount Olivet is the center of the night
Buena Vista Heritage's tour page lists five tour dates this season: June 20, July 11, Aug. 1, Sept. 12 and Oct. 30. Only the October date falls on Halloween weekend. It's also the one the Chaffee County Times described as a lantern tour. Organizers will hand out lanterns, and the paper suggests bringing a flashlight too.
The format has been around a while. CPR News reported that the tours began in 2004 as a Buena Vista Heritage fundraiser and were the idea of former executive director Kathi Perry. In the same story, founding member Sue Kelly described how a tour works:
"So as you walk through the cemetery, you'll come up on somebody dressed in a costume."
The Times says historian Suzy Kelly will introduce this year's characters.
The cemetery is a piece of town history in its own right. According to Ark Valley Voice, Mount Olivet opened in 1880 on five acres donated by James McPhelemy, and Mary Mahon was the first person buried there. It replaced an older Buena Vista cemetery near the Arkansas River. In the 1950s, the twelve graves from that first cemetery were moved to Mount Olivet. White wooden crosses on the east side mark the graves of inmates from the reformatory.
McPhelemy's name comes up again a few paragraphs down. In 1879, a year before the cemetery opened, he was one of three people who donated land for the townsite.
The three characters on this year's tour
The Times and Buena Vista Heritage both name the same three historical figures. Each one shaped Buena Vista in a different way.
Alsina Dearheimer, who named the town
A 2013 Chaffee County historic resources survey calls her Alsina Waite Dearheimer. It says she, James McPhelemy and Lawrence Waters donated the acreage for the Buena Vista townsite when it was laid out in 1879. So the woman who chose the name also helped provide the land the town sits on. The bakery and the first frame house mentioned above add a third claim to being an early founder. Buena Vista Heritage spells her name "Deerheimer" on its tour page, while the survey and the Times use "Dearheimer."
Cockeyed Liz, whose business ran until she married
The tour's best-known character ran a parlor house. A 2007 Denver Post story identified her as Elizabeth "Cockeyed Liz" Spurgeon and reported that her Palace of Joy stayed open until she married. CPR's 2025 coverage spells her last name "Sturgeon." The Post story gives no street address for the Palace of Joy. The cemetery is the one place in town tied to her name with any certainty.
Byrd Fuqua, who bought an abandoned town
Byrd Raikes Fuqua comes from a later period. The county survey describes her as a wealthy St. Louis socialite who bought the abandoned Alpine townsite in 1924 for what she called the Mount Princeton Byrd Colony. Her plans included a boys' camp, a wildlife preserve, a dude ranch and a hot springs area. She's part of the generation that saw a future for the valley in recreation and hot springs after the mining towns emptied out.
Dearheimer helped start the town and named it. Liz represents the rough early decades. Fuqua is part of the 1920s bet on recreation and hot springs that came after. You meet all three on one hour-long walk.
After the tour, the Surf Hotel takes over
The tour ends at 6:15, an hour before The Polish Ambassador goes on at the Surf Hotel. The Chaffee County Times reported that this is the hotel's first Halloween "hotel takeover." The whole property is part of the event, including the Ivy Ballroom, The LAWN, the hot pool, the lounges, and the restaurant and bar Wesley and Rose.
Rob Scott, the hotel's marketing and communications manager, told the Times why they're doing it. On regular concert nights, he said, "half the hotel is here for just a stay and the other half is for a concert," and the two groups sometimes get in each other's way. The takeover puts everyone in the building at the same event.
You don't need a room to go. Here's what the Times reported in its preview:
- Two-day general admission passes, covering both concerts but no hotel stay, cost $129.98.
- VIP two-day packages for two people start at $848 and include a room, both concerts and early access to the hotel's amenities.
- Single-day tickets and single-day VIP packages were still available for Friday.
- Single-day tickets for Saturday, Halloween itself, had already sold out.
- Tickets are sold at Tixr.
Friday's set is "Dead Polish Phish," in which he mixes his electronic sound with songs by the Grateful Dead and Phish. On Saturday he plays his own music. Costumes are welcome both nights, and the costume contest is Saturday. Because Saturday single-day tickets sold out early, Friday is the easier night to get in if you're local and not staying at the hotel.
Saturday, Oct. 31, and the weekend after
Saturday's schedule is short. Strange Craft is hosting a Halloween party in the BV Backyard at 324 E. Main St., with Mateo & the High Vibes playing from 4 to 6 p.m. The event listings don't give a cover charge, so check with Strange Craft before you go. A 4 o'clock start leaves time to get to the second Polish Ambassador show if you already have tickets.
Halloween isn't the last event of the stretch. The Chamber of Commerce calendar lists a Día de los Muertos celebration on Monday, Nov. 2.
Tracking down where Alsina Dearheimer's bakery stood or where the Palace of Joy operated is the sort of town history I enjoy after 25-plus years of living in Buena Vista. If the lantern tour leaves you curious about how the town grew out from the land those founders gave, I'd be happy to share what I've learned. Contact Mary Kale anytime.
