Forces Converge in the Eagle River Valley

Forces Converge in the Eagle River Valley. Camp Hale. , 1870s – 1880s , The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RGW) begins building the highest rail line route over Tennessee Pass (10,240 feet) to transport timber, coal, gold, and silver between Denver and Salt Lake City, Utah. A railway stop located in Eagle Park (present day Camp Hale) is completed in Pando. , 1890s , White River Plateau Timberland Reserve, precursor of the White River National Forest, is set aside by executive order of President Benjamin Harrison. Covering over 1.1 million acres of prime timberland, it is the first preserve in Colorado and second in the nation. , Timber, cut and cleared for ranching, is shipped from the Pando rail stop. , 1900s – 1910s , President Theodore Roosevelt reduces the size of the reserve by 220,000 acres from 1902-1904. , Following an Act of Congress in 1905, the name "forest reserves" is changed to "national forests" to indicate the resources of these areas are not locked up for a distant future. , 1920s – 1930s , Pando Sheep and Land Company uses Eagle Park (Eagle River Valley) as grazing land; and the Isabell Ranch grows lettuce and spinach. , Ice ponds on the Frank Byer's Ranch supply ice to the D&RGW at the Pando railway stop. , 1940s , Eagle River Valley site is chosen for Mountain Winter Warfare Training Center by the U.S. military. , Construction of Camp Hale begins , completed in 7 months. , 10th Mountain Division Soldiers train at Camp Hale from 1942-1944. , Following the defeat of Germany in World War II, Camp Hale is dismantled. , 1950s – 1960s , Central Intelligence Agency secretly trains Tibetan soldiers at Camp Hale for incursions into China from 1959 to 1965. , Camp Hale facilities deactivated; control of area returned to the U.S. Forest Service; Forest Service continues to authorize mountain training exercises in the area. , , , , , . Seventy-million years ago the Rocky Mountains violently uplifted from a low ancestral mountain range; over time glaciers and rivers further defined the peaks and valleys you see before you. Earth-moving forces converged here again in 1942. During a time of world war, an army of men and machines amassed to bulldoze this land , leveling the valley floor and channelizing the Eagle River. , The U.S. Army selected this site, with its 9,200-foot elevation, water source, railway and roadway access, high altitude climate, annual twelve-foot snowfall, and surrounding 200 square miles of rugged terrain to train a new fighting force. Barracks, buildings, mule stables, barns, and weapons ranges transformed this valley into a mountain and winter warfare training center. , 10th Mountain soldiers tested themselves and their military equipment during skiing, rock climbing, and winter survival skill maneuvers within the Camp's boundaries and forest terrain. In 2022 to honor these men and the Sawatch to Tenmile Range landscape, President Biden established the 53,804-acre Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument on National Forest System lands.