Ancient Web: A Columbine Site Began as a Memorial and Became a Record

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

A website begun the day after a tragedy can become something different when its author keeps returning to it for more than twenty-five years.

Visit A Columbine Site.

According to its author, C. Shepard, the first version appeared on free web hosting on April 21, 1999. It was a single-page memorial to the people killed at Columbine High School the previous day. Names and school photographs were added as they became publicly available. The page gradually expanded into an independently maintained research archive.

The surviving index separates accounts of the victims and survivors from the chronology of the attack, official reports, photographs, news coverage, memorials, and years of aftermath. One particularly careful section on injured survivors explains its boundaries: the webmaster does not approach survivors for information uninvited and omits birth dates and middle names to discourage data mining. That editorial choice is part of the record, too.

A web archive that outlived the news cycle

Shepard says the site was built with hand-coded HTML, without page editors. Its dense navigation reflects years of accumulation rather than the short life of a news article. Dedicated pages track memorial crosses, the school's later renovations, anniversary coverage, interviews, and people rebuilding their lives.

The site's about page also explains how its author monitored contemporary reporting, spoke with people connected to the community, and tried to sort conflicting accounts. These are descriptions of the webmaster's methods, not a guarantee that every interpretation or source in the archive is beyond dispute. Visitors should distinguish official documents, eyewitness accounts, and editorial conclusions.

This broader memorial-and-research project is a different subject from the site's previously documented problem of misleading copies of old webpages. The important story here is what a continuously maintained, independent archive can preserve after immediate media attention moves elsewhere.

Some sections include deeply disturbing material. That is a reason to approach them thoughtfully, not a reason to forget the victims or erase the historical evidence.

Read how the site began and explore its survivor and memorial sections.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.