Alferd Packer Massacre Site

You are near the most infamous patch of ground in the San Juan Mountains. In February of eighteen seventy-four, Alferd Packer and five other men set out from the camp of the Ute chief Ouray, hoping to reach gold country near Breckenridge. A brutal blizzard trapped them in these mountains above Lake City.

Packer walked out alone sixty-six days later, oddly well fed, carrying his companions' money. The bodies of all five were found here that summer. Packer never denied eating them.

He was tried twice, convicted of murder, then of manslaughter, and served time before being paroled. Lake City has long since made grim peace with the story. There is a Packer Burger at a local grill, an annual Al Packer Days, and a wooden marker proclaiming this the massacre site of Colorado's most famous cannibal.