By Don Owen, CDTC Board Member
I would like to tell you a story about going to Camp Hale for the first time, with my dad. I am a member of the Board of Directors for the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and I’m also the son of a 10th Mountain Division soldier in World War II – and proud to be representing both.
My dad, like most World War II veterans, never talked about the war. He returned from the war, went to school, married my mom, raised a family, and worked as a civil engineer for a prominent architectural firm in Boston for his entire career. But every weekend, all winter long, he’d load us up in the car – kids would be stacked like cordwood in the back – and we’d be off to the races to yet another ski area in Maine or New Hampshire or Vermont.
Our parents loved the outdoors, and it just seemed natural to be in the woods and mountains. Growing up, my brother and sister and I thought that everybody skied. We just thought that was what everybody did in the winter.
When I was nineteen, I moved out to Colorado and got a job in a ski shop at the base of Vail Ski Area. My dad splurged that winter and brought the whole family out to ski for a week at Vail. And one day, we took a day off, and my brother, my dad, and I went up to Camp Hale, which is on the back side of Vail Mountain.
We arrived at Camp Hale around 8:30 in the morning, and my dad started talking. He. Did. Not. Shut Up. All day long. It was crazy, and my brother and I just kind of kept looking at each other going, ‘Who is this guy?’ He told us stories about training, stories about carrying somebody who developed frostbite out of the backcountry. He told stories about teaching others how to ski because he was one of the few people who knew how to ski before signing up for the 10th.
It was incredibly fascinating – and then, he never talked about it again. My brother and I would occasionally prod him with questions after that, but no luck.
For that one entire day, though, for twelve hours straight, all my dad did was talk. I think it was an amazing, profound experience for him, as it was for so many other soldiers, to be part of one of the storied divisions in World War II.
Back East, we don’t have the public land base as in the West. When I took a job on the Appalachian Trail in 1985, I was returning to a very different environment, where public lands were 5% or 10% of the landscape instead of 50% of the landscape. It was a different world.
I can’t overstate the importance and necessity for people to have access to public lands –- to be able to recreate in an environment where people are a very small part of a much larger landscape. Over time, these special places are going to be essential for our survival as a species. They are our reservoirs of clean air, clean water, and wildlife that help sustain this planet. Without them, I’m not sure where we would end up, but I don’t think it would be a good place.
Over time, these special places are going to be essential for our survival as a species. They are our reservoirs of clean air, clean water, and wildlife that help sustain this planet.
Don Owen, CDTC Board member and son of a 10th Mountain Division veteran
For my brother, my sister and myself, the designation of the Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument was incredibly and powerfully important. The permanent protection of the 10th Mountain Division’s training grounds and the mountains around them honors the soldiers who gave their lives and soldiers who gave years of their lives, like my dad did. The importance of recognizing our armed forces and the sacrifices that they’ve made for our country cannot be underestimated, and it’s a small part of a very large recognition they deserve.
In October 2022, President Biden designated Camp Hale–Continental Divide National Monument in Colorado, marking the first National Monument designation by the administration, on the lands of the Ute people. The designation came after leaders from Colorado, including Senator Bennet, Senator Hickenlooper, Governor Polis, and Representative Neguse, sent a letter to President Biden urging for protection of this area in August, following a visit from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to Camp Hale. This designation includes some of the most treasured landscapes in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains – including over 20 miles of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.
