Nestled in an alpine valley in Colorado’s high country, is the country’s newest national monument. Back during WWII, thousands of soldiers trained in mountain combat at the camp.
This week, President Biden announced the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument Wednesday during a ceremony at the abandoned facility, near Leadville. This designation is the first of his presidency.
“It's for the people of Colorado, but it also goes well beyond the people of Colorado. It's for all the people across America and the world,” Biden said.
Today, little is left of Camp Hale aside from a grid of roads as well as ruins but, in the 1940s, this vast windy valley was home to a bustling military facility. Its 1,000 buildings included a hospital, barracks and a shooting range. Thousands of soldiers who served with the 10th Mountain Division trained here in winter warfare during World War II, skiing down nearby mountain peaks, climbing rock faces and camping in the surrounding forests.
“I mean, this is the camp, but they weren't here in the camp that often,” Susie Kincade, an Eagle County advocate with the Wilderness Workshop said. “They came back once a week, maybe to shave and shower, and then they'd get all their gear back up and on their backs, and they would head back up for another week of maneuvers.”
Activists have been pushing to protect this land for years. First, through the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Economy Act — or the CORE Act — which would have safeguarded four areas in the wilderness, including Camp Hale, but that legislation has been stuck in the Senate for years. Senator Michael Bennet, who is up for reelection in November, along with other Colorado Democratic Party members, started pushing for the monument status this summer.
The 53,804 acre designation encompasses Camp Hale and also the Ten Mile Range, which is home to ten peaks over 13,000 feet in elevation as well as lakes, waterfalls, and delicate high alpine plants.
“That's where they fell in love with the lifestyle and the mountaineering style and life in the Rocky Mountains. And that's why so many of them returned,” Kramer said.
After the war, the 10th Mountain Division soldiers went on to make significant contributions to Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy. These soldiers went on to create 62 ski areas, according to the Colorado Snowsports Museum. They founded well-known resorts including Vail and Arapahoe Basin. One of these veterans created the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), another was the first executive director of the Sierra Club.
The monument designation means that the area’s story will be better preserved, including the history of the Ute Tribes who lived on this land long ago. Future development, like mining, will be prohibited. Operating ski resorts, snowmobiling, hiking and camping will still be allowed.
“It's quite a balancing act to help to try to protect our public lands today without someone being upset,” Kincade said. “So this is a real win and a real victory.”
Not long after the designation came down, the Ute Indian Tribe in Utah, published a statement voicing opposition to the monument, saying it was done without tribal consultation.
Congressional Republicans, including Rep. Lauren Boebert, recently wrote a letter to the president, concerned about the “severe land use restrictions” of a monument designation, urging him instead to let the CORE Act work its way through Congress.'It all came to life’
With most of the Camp Hale soldiers gone, many of their families have gotten involved in the preservation effort, like Nancy Kramer of Steamboat Springs, who heads up the 10th Mountain Division Foundation. Her father, William ‘Rope Sole’ Robertson, was a medic with the is unit.
“He was not unlike a lot of the soldiers,” Kramer said. “They didn't talk about the war. They didn't talk of the training.”
Until a day many years ago when they visited the area and before stopping at Camp Hale, the family pulled over at Tennessee Pass, a few miles up the road, to visit the 10th Mountain Division Memorial.
“My dad had been very quiet sitting in the backseat
and he just was like a bullet out the car door,” Kramer said.
He put his hands on the stone memorial, running his fingers over the names.
“For this man who had not talked about the war and for us to not really understand the significance to him, it all came to life. He was touching the names of his buddies that were killed,” Kramer said.
During the six months they spent fighting in Italy, around 1,000 10th Mountain Division soldiers died in combat. One of their most significant battles was at Riva Ridge in the Italian Apennines. Soldiers scaled up 2,000 feet at night, surprising the Germans and eventually taking control of the ridge.
With the monument designation, Kramer hopes to see some of this history preserved with better signage and a stronger educational component such as interactive touch-screens for visitors.
“This is just something that a lot of Americans don't know and understand. It really exemplifies Colorado's High Country and why they chose this place and why Colorado became important in their story,” Kramer said.
‘It’s become my church’
Camp Hale continues to hold meaning for soldiers today. Bradley Noone, a current 10th Mountain Division veteran, needed to heal after returning from Afghanistan.
“It's given me, especially the hills and the public lands around Camp Hale, it’s given me a place to recharge,” Noone said, looking out over the ruins of the abandoned facility. “It's given me a place to recover from my combat stress, my Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, my physical injuries. It's become my church, my therapists, my playgrounds and my gym.”
Noone, who loves to hike and go off-roading in the area, sometimes discovering old foxholes and old training sites, hopes to be one of the stakeholders involved in the monument’s future.
Going forward, in what is likely to be a years-long process, the U.S. Forest Service will manage the 50,000-acre monument, developing a plan, with public input, on how to handle everything from cultural resources to natural resources to tourism.
