10th MOUNTAIN DIVISION at CAMP HALE

with Eric D. Miller, co-author

SYNOPSIS:

In 1942, at the beginning of World War II, the US Army built its most unusual military post for its most unusual division in a high, remote, Rocky Mountain valley 100 miles west of Denver, Colorado.

Located at 9,250 feet above sea level, Camp Hale was the training home of the famed 13,459-man 10th Mountain Division, which trained in mountain warfare techniques for two years–and almost missed the war. After they were finally deployed for combat in early 1945 in the Northern Apennine Mountains of Italy, the young men of the 10th never lost a battle or gave up a foot of ground. And, after the war, many of the veterans returned home to create America’s ski and winter sports industry.

Building Camp Hale was an incredible feat of wartime engineering and construction. To transform the wild, alpine meadow into an Army camp, 10,000 civilian construction workers were hired to scrape away the vegetation; level the valley floor; install roads and water and sewer lines; build 1,000 structures and two ski areas; and relocate a highway and railroad line–all within seven months and at a cost of $31 million (almost a half billion dollars in today’s money). Yet Camp Hale was demolished two years after it was built because the Army thought it would never again need such a specialized unit.

This book, part of Arcadia’s series of local and regional pictorial histories, has 198 photos, many of which have never been published before.

The original plan called for a camp housing 20,353 officers and men, and 11,288 animals. This was reduced a month later to 16,392 humans and 3,925 animals. But before the military camp could be built, a camp for the construction workers, near the Pando railroad depot, needed to go up. Work on it commenced on April 15, when several feet of snow still covered the ground. A trailer camp for 1,050 workmen and their families was also installed; many workers had to find lodging in Leadville, Minturn, and Red Cliff, and commute to the site every day. Incredibly, the army post was finished in November 1942—seven months later!

Many of the pictures in this book depict a light-hearted air on the part of the young, fresh-faced soldiers in the prime of their lives. And no wonder—they are (or seem to be) enjoying the pleasures of skiing, of mountain climbing, of hiking in the pristine wilderness; who wouldn’t enjoy that? Not visible are the gnawing fears that each man must have had—fears of what lay ahead if and when they were deployed to battle. Who would come back? Who would suffer grievous wounds, even the loss of limbs? Who would never ski or climb again? The smiling faces in these photos mask the unstated dread of war.

“Fascinating. Lots of great photos and a very clear writing style.”

—Amazon reviewer

Available from Arcadia, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble
ISBN 978-1-4671-0917-8
$23.99 (softcover only)