The single grave two miles below Marble to the left going out, is that of John C. McKee who contracted pneumonia in Schofield. His friends, thinking he just had a severe cold, were attempting to take him on horseback to a doctor in Carbondale. There was no road between Marble and Carbondale at that time, just a horse trail. He died when nearing Marble. It being a hot day and realizing they couldn’t possibly reach Carbondale for two more days, they decided it best to bury him there.
The little cemetery farther down the road to the east was not there at that time. It was started much later. Many ask if there had been an epidemic here at one time: so many baby graves. No, according to the oldest residents of Marble there had never been an epidemic here to their knowledge. The many infant graves there belonged to foreigners who considered childbirth an every day occurrence and no necessity for calling a doctor. So the infant mortality was very high.
The huge piles of marble near town are not rejects, neither were they washed there by floods. Marble doesn’t wash; and the floods never came near them. They are the old stock yards where marble was stored until needed in the mill.
BEFORE—Colorado Yule Marble Mill as it was in 1942. It was 1,700 ft. long and from 100 to 150 ft. wide. At the time it was built (1906-08) it was the largest marble fabricating plant in the world, employing nearly 1,000 workers. —Photo by Henry L. Johnson, Marble, Colo.
AFTER—Old Mill Site as it is today after the huge building had been dismantled and torn down in 1943. The machinery had been sold to Morse Bros. Reconditioning Co., Denver, Colo., and the building to Holly Campbell, Grand Junction, Colo. —Photo courtesy John B. Schutte, Glenwood Springs, Colo.
The tall marble columns in the mill yard are not supports for the building, but were supports for the crane tracks used when moving large blocks.
Elmer Bair is another person who has great faith in the valley. He went to work for the Colorado Yule Marble Co. in 1927 as a sawyer; after six months he was given the job as motorman on one of the trolleys. He held this position for four years—excepting the winters of 1929 and 1930 when he carried the mail on snowshoes and skis up to the mines on Schofield Pass.
Quoting from a letter received from Elmer Bair: