Park Hee Byung

Park Hee-byung (1871, Gangwon, Korea – June 13, 1907, Denver, Colorado) was a Korean independence activist and one of the first Korean immigrants to the U.S. state of Colorado.

Life and death Park first came to the United States in 1900 with Yi Gang, fifth son of Emperor Gojong; the two studied together at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia.

Discovery of grave In 2003, South Korean scholars doing research on immigration to the United States found records about Park in Korea and began to look through Denver cemetery records in an attempt to find him. After his burial site was identified, the local Korean American association held a ceremony in October 2007, during which they erected a new $3,000 granite headstone with a bilingual epitaph describing Park's life and accomplishments; 50 people attended the ceremony, including South Korean consul general Koo Bon-woo.