Vampire Hunting in Colorado

In Lafayette, Colorado there's  the Lafayette Municipal Cemetery and Todor Glava is buried there. Why should that matter? It matters because, according to local legend, Todor was a vampire. 

He came to Colorado to work in the coal mines and sent money back to his wife in Austria. Todor Glava was from Transylvania in Austria. In 1918 he caught the Spanish Flu pandemic and died. Because of, I'm sure, lack of money, his tombstone is shared with a man from Romania, close to his home, in this cemetery.

"TODOR GLAVA BORN IN TRANSIVANIA"

From here is where the legend takes a fork in the road. One part claims the Todor still rises to this day and can be seen sitting on his tomb. He is a "tall this man with a black coat, dark hair, and long fingernails."

This legend does not mix with any of the other's because a dead vampire does not rise or randomly appear; this isn't a ghost we're talking about. There is a tree that grows right out of the ground where the chest of Todor Glava is; this is rumored to be from the stake that was driven through his heart and killed him. Like I said: a dead vampire does not rise.

The legends also do not include any part of how he might have become a vampire. I'm pretty sure a vampire in a coal mine would be an obvious thing, that's a lot of people in a little space. But that does give him a dark space to live and an excuse to never go out. Mmmm... I guess it doesn't really matter how he became one.

The tree that grew from the stake in the heart of Todor Glava

It's a morbid thought that the stake grew into a tree, and it's also really interesting that a tree is there at all. Think about any cemetery that you've ever been to: have you ever seen a tree survive where a body was? Interesting.

Of course I stand on the grave and lean on the stake tree, who wouldn't? 

I went with a friend, Molly, and once we got our fill of vampires and Todor we wandered the cemetery. Talked about life, death, vampires, how we want our tombs to look, and what they should say, obviously. Here are some shots that I took.

The old ones are so interesting. Simple and sweet; they stand out in their own way.

Peaceful little cemetery in a small town.

This reads "HE LINGERS WHERE HIS CHILDREN USED TO PLAY" which might be the creepiest thing ever to post on a tombstone. 

It was a nice day to walk in a cemetery. 

A lot of stones had symbols on them, like this one, and it was interesting to find them and guess what they  meant. Or google them in our case. 

All in all vampire hunting was pretty fun! From what I saw of Lafayette, this might be the most entertaining thing there. If I'm wrong please let me know what we missed. If you want to find the site yourself here's some great directions to follow to get there. 

Enjoy vampire hunting!