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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Basalt (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Basalt. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Name Variations for Basalt ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

Over the years, Basalt had several name changes:

  • Prior to its current name of Basalt, it was known as Aspen Junction.
  • Before changing to Aspen Junction, it was named Fryingpan Town.
  • The community of Basalt was originally named Fryingpan Town

Another variation: Frying Pan Town.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Basalt. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Basalt.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

A Few Details for Basalt ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • The naming (or the toponymy) of Basalt: pcodwn:Named for Basalt Peak, a lava formation in the area
  • It was incorporated on August 26, 1901.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Basalt is primarily located in Eagle County. A portion of Basalt extends into Pitkin County.

To see how the shape of Colorado's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Eagle County: Garfield, Grand, Lake, Pitkin, Routt & Summit.

Below are the counties that are near Basalt. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Basalt:

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Basalt, see our County-by-County Page for Basalt.

Cemeteries Near Basalt ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Basalt.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Basalt - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Basalt covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Basalt, with the one closest to Basalt listed first.

  • Fairview Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Wheatley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Carbondale Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Weaver Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Fisher Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Marion Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Red Butte Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Ute Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Aspen Grove Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Rosebud Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Cedar Hill Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Dotsero Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Marble Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Brett Family Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Basalt had a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Basalt had a population of 4,183 people.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Basalt, with the one closest to Basalt listed first.

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Basalt. See our List of 1890's Communities around Basalt.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Basalt ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 62 newspapers that have been published in the area around Basalt.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Basalt. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Basalt and those printed in the larger area surrounding Basalt.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Basalt.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Basalt:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<3>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Basalt, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Basalt) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.