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| Another view of Mount Arkansas. |
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| The photos of Mount
Arkansas were taken near the Climax Mine, atop Tennessee Pass, near
Leadville. |
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| Pictured here are the remains of Camp
Hale where the Army's 10th Mountain Division, called the "Elite Mountain
Troops", trained for mountain warfare during World War II. When it was
in full operation, 15,000 soldiers were housed here. |
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| While at Camp Hale,
soldiers were trained in mountain climbing, Alpine and Nordic skiing and
cold-weather survival, as well as various weapons and ordnance. |
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| More of those beautiful
wildflowers! |
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| From 1959 to 1965,
the CIA used Camp Hale to secretly train Tibetan Freedom Fighters.
Many of these brave young men lost their lives in the battle for freedom
from China. There is a plaque on the grounds that commemorates them. |
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| In 1945, after two years of
rigorous training, the Tenth Mountain Division was ordered to Italy to
spearhead an advance of the U.S. Army. In a series of actions, the
10th Mountain Division breached the supposedly impregnable Gothic Line in
the Apennines and secured the Po River Valley to play a vital role in the
liberation of northern Italy. By the time the Germans surrendered in
May 1945, 992 ski troopers had lost their lives and 4,000 were wounded, the
highest casualty rate of any U.S. division in the Mediterranean. A
monument has been placed at the entrance to Ski Cooper, in memory of the
soldiers killed in action in Italy. An adjacent monument commemorates
the soldiers of the 99th Battalion, Norwegian nationals, who liberated
Norway in May 1945. |
