DENVER (KDVR) — President Joe Biden lands in the Centennial State Wednesday but has only one place to visit on his agenda.
Biden is expected to discuss how to protect Colorado’s environment in addition to announcing its first new national monument. He will visit and speak about the great outdoors from the former site of Camp Hale north of Leadville.
Early days of Camp Hale
The former temporary military site situated in the Pando Valley was built in 1942 as a training facility for the United States Army’s 10th Mountain Division for World War II.
The initial purpose for the location and training soldiers how to ski and navigate high country was to help them fight in the mountains of Northern Italy during the second world war.
“The army began construction of the camp in April 1942. Named Camp Hale, in honor of former Brigadier General Irving Hale, a Denver native, the camp occupied 1,456.8 acres of the Pando Valley floor,” the Colorado Encyclopedia website says.
The site says the camp cost the Army $31 million to construct which diverted the flow of the Eagle River.
According to the History Colorado site, the camp was built in just seven months. It consisted of:
226 barracks 33 administration buildings676-bed hospitala veterinarian hospital for horses, mules, and dogsfive churches and chapels 100 mess halls a bakerythree theatersone field houseindoor pistol rangesseven post exchangestwo service clubs, one officers clubhorse and mule barnsgrain storagecoal storagenumerous warehousesa stockadevehicle-maintenance facilitiesweapons rangessix underground ammunition magazinesfour water storage tanksthree fire stationsa schoolpost officemedical and dental clinicsa combat villagetwo ski areas
The small city in the middle of the mountains at 9,250 feet was completed by labor consisting of mostly men outside of draft age and those exempted from the draft.
What happened to Camp Hale after the war
The Colorado Encyclopedia said prisoners of war were ordered to dismantle the buildings at Camp Hale in 1945 after the war was over and the materials were used to build at Fort Carson. The camp was reactivated for soldiers from Fort Carson on a limited basis to train. It was then used as a CIA site to secretly train Tibetian military personnel from 1959-1964, the encyclopedia said.
The Department of the Army officially closed Camp Hale at the end of 1965 and transferred the land to the White River National Forest. The Forest Service later constructed two campgrounds, the Camp Hale Memorial Campground and the East Fork Campground, as well as a picnic area.
10th Mountain Division
The US Army’s first and only Mountain Infantry Division was a combination of the 85th and 86th Mountain Infantry Regiments to the 87th Regiment, the Colorado Encyclopedia says. The camp housed more than 15,000 troops in approximately 1,000 buildings after its opening and was used as a training center from 1942-1945.
The 10th Mountain Division was deactivated after the war and members of the division returned to Colorado and played a key role in developing many ski areas including Aspen, Vail, and Loveland. Other ski areas around the country also have ties to members from the division.
