hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #26 Posted June 23, 2013 From here, we drove down through the middle of the camp towards the old Bailey Bridge. On the other side of the bridge was this structure that shows up on a lot of websites. We walked through it and the interesting thing is that the wood floor is still partially in place. We continued across the camp the the east side where the troops used to practice rock climbing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #27 Posted June 23, 2013 We drove south along the south side of the base to the rifle ranges. It is hard to see in this picture, it is looking S.E across the ranges, but there are four berms built up with shooting to the south. On the SW side of the range was this sign by the target pits This is a view across the back of the target pits. For some reason, they are posted as bunkers but they are the target pits safe rooms. a view into one of the rooms, nothing spectacular. We spent a fair amount of time trying to find a souvenir, I wanted to try finding a fired round in the front of the berm. There were quite a few prarie dog and chipmunk holes and we sifted that dirt, but found nothing. Funny thing, prairie dog crap looks a lot like the penetrator out of a M2 ball round. I did find the rusted lid off of a M2 spam can. I put it in the truck and unfortunately forgot about it until after my bags were all packed, so I wasn't able to bring it on home. It will finish it's life rusting away on the hill behind the hotel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #28 Posted June 23, 2013 We ended up driving around the back of the camp and instead of taking us out to the south end of the camp, we ended up several miles south, so we decided to drive to Leadville. As we were crossing the continental divide, we came across the 10th Mountain memorial. The walkway had several more plates for reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #29 Posted June 23, 2013 At the top of the display was two marble markers. These are very large with lots of detail, so I cut the pictures down but left them large sized so that you can pull them up and focus in on the names. So, if anyone knows a 10th Mountain guy KIA during WWII, his name should be here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #30 Posted June 23, 2013 And here are the names We left and went to Leadville where I found another antique store. This one had a ski, but it was more used and there was only one. I took a picture of the bottom to show how these were built. They wanted $118 for the single ski. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #31 Posted June 23, 2013 After visiting most of the pubs and the guys fairly crocked, we drove back down 24 towards Camp Hale. We stopped at the last of the three turn-outs. These plates were fairly crazed from the sun and hard to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #32 Posted June 23, 2013 As a final coup-de-grace, I took a final panoramic photo from full north to full south. Well, that is it, hope it was worth the time to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted June 23, 2013 Share #33 Posted June 23, 2013 Excellent... thanks for the tour! Finding the period made ski set just adds to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #34 Posted June 23, 2013 I just wish I had the money to buy them and get them home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyCanteen Posted June 23, 2013 Share #35 Posted June 23, 2013 This is a great thread! The photos are excellent and the scenery beautiful! Thanks for giving us the tour! Seeing that large building from the ground sure is nice, I wonder if it was a mess hall? RC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #36 Posted June 23, 2013 I think it was some kind of maintenance facility. I didn't mention it, but there is a steel rail door track still in place, so the entire north end could be opened up. at the south end appeared to be some kind of large heater or something that took a lot of steel as much of it was still poking out of the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyCanteen Posted June 23, 2013 Share #37 Posted June 23, 2013 That would make sense, it almost resembled a small hanger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 23, 2013 Author Share #38 Posted June 23, 2013 Whoop! Found it. It was the field house, now why the door track is a mystery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Meatcan Posted June 23, 2013 Share #39 Posted June 23, 2013 great tour Hawk! must have been a ton of fun poking around those grounds Thanks for taking the time to post all your pix and write up the narrative! Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 24, 2013 Author Share #40 Posted June 24, 2013 No problem, It was fun and I was glad to have the opportunity. I just wish I had a metal detector, may have to go back and try it again some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRR Posted June 24, 2013 Share #41 Posted June 24, 2013 Very cool tour of the place. Thanks Hawk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge8 Posted June 25, 2013 Share #42 Posted June 25, 2013 Looks like a good place to use a metal detector. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camopara Posted June 25, 2013 Share #43 Posted June 25, 2013 I'm afraid that it has been fairly picked over. I had a friend who used to metal detect up there. Last I heard he was coming home with empty cartridges and smalls like that. There is a antique mall on the main drag in Leadville that has good stuff every once in a while. Haven't been there this year to see what has turned up. Here's some items that used to be in my collection that were from the family of the namesake of the camp. (Broken Links Removed) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hawkdriver Posted June 25, 2013 Author Share #44 Posted June 25, 2013 I'm afraid that it has been fairly picked over. I had a friend who used to metal detect up there. Last I heard he was coming home with empty cartridges and smalls like that. There is a antique mall on the main drag in Leadville that has good stuff every once in a while. Haven't been there this year to see what has turned up. I was in that antique store, there was a few items, not much. Found a single ski, that is where the picture of the bottom of a ski come from. There were a few over priced cavalry items. The only thing I came away with was a box of Frankford Arsenal primers for the .30. I can believe the place was picked over. I couldn't find a thing, surprised I found the spam can lid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now