Mary Jane “Grandma Heath”, and her family lived in what is now known as the Draper Cave for 2 years after coming to the Hardscrabble area in the early 1870’s.
You can read her fascinating account of life in the Hardscrabble Valley entitled,
“Out of a Cave An Early Settler’s Life in the Hardscrabble Valley”
along with an Afterword written by P.O. Abbott HERE
Trinity Ranch and Draper Cave Field Trip, 2013
This is the recap of the visit to Draper Cave, written by Margaret Storm:
Hiking up the mountain to the west of the Tennant homestead, we arrived at Draper Cave.
Dave Alexander had given us a handout with physical setting, soil evidence, archaic human occupation, and human remains information he had obtained about a prior “dig” of the Cave.
Armed with this, we were anxious to hear the story of George Washington and Mary Jane Moxley Heath who lived in the cave for two years upon their arrival (1870) to the Hardscrabble.
Eventually, the land wound up as part of the George and Leona Sullivan Draper ranch. It was they who authorized the archeological dig in the 1970’s by the University of Colorado. It is important to note that the water supply for the cave came from Tennant Gulch with the mouth of the cave 13 feet above the bank of the stream (now dry).
Jerry and Buddy Draper continued the story of Buddy’s family, including the many years of providing stock and being stunt doubles for the movies – Vengeance Valley, Cat Ballou, Connagher and The Cowboys to name a few. The area is scenic and full of historic Custer County evidence of prior animal and human occupation.
