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Camp Hale, home of 10th Mountain, as it looks today


hawkdriver
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Today, we were flying back from Leadville and I took these photo's of what is left of Camp Hale, the original home of 10th Mountain.

 

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Is this still government land?

 

Yup, forest service owns it now and it is on the register of national historic places. All recreation land.

 

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You have to have the most boring job, just flying around and all :)

 

Thanks for the pictures!

Ya, it really sucks. They make me do it ;)

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And in other news...a citizen walking her dogs outside the Camp Hale Recreation Area was seriously injured by a Sony Cybershot that mysteriously fell from the sky :D

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What are the small white rows in the last two photos of post #4?

 

Excellent photos!

 

Wiki has a picture: "concrete ruins of the field house" Maybe that is it? Here is a Google earth shot of the same spot just rotated 180.

 

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RustyCanteen

Could be, but I wonder if that is a reference to the large concrete foundation?

 

If those other concrete structures are foundations, then they must have literally touched end-to-end.

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Here is the Wiki photo. That looks like the creek in the bottom right of the Google earth shot. Who knows how old the photo is though.

 

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Yup, forest service owns it now and it is on the register of national historic places. All recreation land.

 

 

 

That's good news.

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Cool photo. Its amazing how some of us can look at land and tell its a military base once was there. VAFB has a lot of concret roads left from WW2 and thats all thats left of an area that housed thousands of troops.

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It's interesting that you can still see the layout of the camp.. very typical for a WWII installation. One could probably map out the company areas, headquarters, motor parks, etc.

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If we get done with our checkrides early tomorrow, I may drive up there and get some ground shots if my camera battery holds out.

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Thanks for posting these. My Grandfather was at Camp Hale for a few months. He went there from Fort Lewis, Washington...but left Hale for the Kiska operation, and apparently never went back. He worked instead at the climbing school in Elkins WV until the division went to Camp Swift. He met them there, took command of Company L, 86th Regiment and served with them in Italy. He seems to have enjoyed his time at Hale, as my Grandmother moved out to Glenwood Springs so they could spend every other weekend together.

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Thanks for posting this group of photos of Camp Hale. I spent four years with the 10th Mountain at Fort Drum, we had the snow but not the mountains. I had hiked up to Camp Muir, which is on Mount Rainier a couple of years back. This where the 87th Infantry Regiment trained prior to WWII. It is a good feeling to see or stand where the founders of the outstanding 10th Mountain Division formed and trained.

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After passing my checkride Friday, I talked my guys into driving up to Camp Hale with me for a ground recon. We departed at noon with the additional promise that we would stop at each bar along the way so that the other two could have a beer at each. We headed up Hwy 24 and after a stop in Minturn, I spotted a antique store and couldn't help but mantique. We walked most of the store before I found these.

 

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Nothing like a pair of authentic 43 dated U.S. military skis in awesome shape. The guy knew this as well and the price reflected it, $400 If anyone is interested in driving up to buy these, PM me and I will let you know where they are at.

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After a bit further drive up the valley, we came to the north end of the camp. The first couple turn offs were blocked with this sign. Apparently someone has been licking the concrete and got asbestosis

 

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We finally found a pull in that had a marker. It looked from north to south across the entire camp.

 

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The area to the north east of this pull in was the warehouses and you can still see the concrete base structures.

 

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We continued further south along 24 hwy and passed a ranch style complex that had ATVs and gave guided tours and camping on the property. About half way down the length of the camp was the second pull in. I believe this is where the headquarters was located. The parking lot had several more pictoral displays. Because of the poor quality of the plastic covering, I had to leave these large

 

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Right next to the turn in, was a concrete vault, most likely a weapons security vault left from one of the wood structures

 

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