LAFAYETTE – There are a lot of historic stories in Lafayette. Some are full of facts, others are full of fiction. But none are as bizarre as the "Lafayette Vampire."
Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Lafayette was a bustling mining town. It attracted men from all over who were looking for a mining job.
Some workers came from foreign lands, including the man who is now known as the Lafayette Vampire.
"Supposedly [he was] a miner that came from Transylvania. And that part of the world has always had a certain history behind it. Particularly the Dracula story and everything," explained Claudia Lund, curator of the Lafayette Miner's Museum.
The man's name is Fodor Glava. His homeland of Transylvania made him mysterious. At the time of his death in 1918, stories started swirling.
Some folks assumed Glava was a vampire. Therefore, people started talking about the vampire buried at the Lafayette Cemetery.
"People believe it's more myth than anything else," Lund said.
As the story goes, the tree near his grave played an important role in the myth.
"A tree, supposedly, mysteriously grew up from the grave where his heart would have been, and people wondered if there wasn't a stake driven through his heart because they thought he was a vampire," Lund said.
Apparently blood-red rose bushes grow along his grave during the summer months also.
"Well, if you've lived as long as I have and heard people recite history, there's an awful lot you can't believe," Chuck Waneka, a 94-year-old resident of Lafayette, said.
Nonetheless, it's a fun local legend many enjoy.
To learn more about other legends in Lafayette, visit the town's mining museum: http://www.colorado.com/museum/lafayette-miners-museum
(KUSA-TV © 2015 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
