President Biden declares Colorado's Camp Hale a national monument

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LEADVILLE, Colo. — The training grounds for the famed 10th Mountain Division in World War II are now a national monument.

President Joe Biden designated Camp Hale a national monument in a proclamation Wednesday, Oct. 12, the same day the president is traveled to Colorado to deliver remarks about the designation. You can watch the full speech, which included other Colorado leaders like Governor Jared Polis, in the video player below.

The president's plans for Camp Hale were first reported by The Los Angeles Times and confirmed by Rocky Mountain PBS. The 53,804-acre national monument will also include the Tenmile Range.

Officially known as the The Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, it is Biden’s first national monument as president and the ninth national monument in Colorado.

"This action will honor our nation’s veterans, Indigenous people, and their legacy by protecting this Colorado landscape, while supporting jobs and America’s outdoor recreation economy," a statement from the White House reads.

As the Colorado lawmakers pointed out in their letter to Biden, “many of the veterans of the 10th Mountain Division returned to Colorado after the war to establish our state’s outdoor recreation economy by starting the ski areas that Colorado is known for, further establishing the role Camp Hale and its veterans have played for our state and nation.”

[Related: The Nazi-Fighting Winter Soldiers Who Taught America to Ski]

Bennet, who faces reelection in November, will join Biden in his trip to Colorado. He celebrated the president's announcement Wednesday.

"I can't think of a better choice," Bennet said about Camp Hale in a tweet. "This wouldn't have happened without the tireless work of a broad coalition of Coloradans who have fought for these protections for years."

Congress could have prevented drilling in the Thompson Divide and designated Camp Hale a national monument, two things Bennet advocated for in the past with the CORE Act, but Republicans in Congress blocked the bill's passage.

Biden has now used the Antiquities Act to bypass Congress and create the national monument.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, (R-Rifle) and other Republicans recently wrote their own letter to Biden, saying “while Camp Hale and our servicemembers that were stationed there made important contributions to World War II, we don’t support the efforts of extremist environmentalists who are seeking to hijack this historic place to create a new land designation.”


Kyle Cooke is the digital media manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at kylecooke@rmpbs.org.