Special and Digital Collections Unit
Do you know the story of the “Colorado Cannibal”?
Alferd Packer was a post-Civil War miner and prospector who, lured to Western Colorado by news of a gold strike, headed in February 1874 into the mountains near Breckenridge with five other men. Only one man came out alive.
Two months later, Packer resurfaced with a suspicious amount of cash, some weapons that weren’t his, and a shifty story. He first claimed that his party companions had starved or died from exposure; then, that they had eaten deceased companions to survive. Finally, Packer admitted to killing one man in self-defense, eating him and the others, and scavenging from corpses. Packer ultimately was found guilty of murder and served 17 years in the state penitentiary before being granted parole. He settled in Littleton and died in 1907.
The Auraria Library’s Special Collections, located on the library’s 2nd floor, includes a signed copy of Packer, the Cannibal and other Story Poems, a 1961 volume in which author Stella Pavich uses long-form narrative poems reminiscent of epic poetry to capture the desolation and rugged individualism of the settlers of the American West. Other frontier yarns in that volume included “The Hanging of Betts and Browning,” “Irish Wake, “and “Horse Thief Trail.”
Special Collections preserves unique, rare, or otherwise significant materials that may need special care. Packer, the Cannibal represents a morbid yet interesting facet of Colorado history and can be found at only four U.S. libraries. Its home in Special Collections ensures that the book will continue to be available for Auraria Library users far into the future.
To check out the unique materials in the Auraria Library’s Special and Digital Collections Reading Room, email specialcollections@ucdenver.edu to request a visit.
For detailed information about Digital and Special Collections at the Auraria Library, including scheduling an appointment, visit this page.
You can learn more about Alferd Packer here:
Museum Trail’s “Alferd Packer – ‘The Colorado Cannibal’”
NBC News’ “Was cannibal a murderer? Maybe not.”
Colorado Life Magazine’s “The History of Alfred Packer”
