Voices from the Void

Witness accounts — survivor testimony — private correspondence — recovered letters

Testimony & Witness

Witness Account — 1864

Captain Silas Soule

He ordered his men not to fire. He watched anyway. He wrote it down. He was murdered four months after his testimony was submitted.

Frontier Statement — 1874

Statement of Survival in the San Juan Country

Alferd Packer

He came out of the San Juans alone. The mountains kept what they took. He carried the silence of five others with him.

Private Correspondence — 1885

Letter Written After Beaver Creek

Anonymous Militiaman

He wrote to his brother the week after the engagement. He did not describe what he had done. He described what he had seen done. The letter was never sent.

Eyewitness & Survivor

Eyewitness Testimony — 1904

Statement of a Telegraph Boy

Anonymous, submitted 1931

He was the first person on-site with a working wire. He sent twelve messages before dawn. He counted the survivors. The number did not match the manifest.

Survivor Testimony — 1914

Account from the Tent Colony

Anonymous, collected 1944

She was inside a tent when the shooting started. She was inside the death pit when it ended. She survived. She was eleven years old.

Private Correspondence

Private Letter — 1893

Letter from an Arkansas Valley Field Hand

Anonymous, submitted c. 1913

He found a pattern in the wheat north of Pueblo that he could not name. He kept the letter for twenty years. When he finally sent it, he described walking the shape: arc — spur east — return.

Object Memoir — 1894

Letter from a Rider

Anonymous, submitted 1921

He bought a saddle from a man who seemed relieved to be rid of it. The stirrups were already set to his length. The seat already knew how he sat. The marks on the left fender were not decorative.