Sidebar by Allen Best
Camp Hale – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
With war clouds gathering over Europe, the U.S. Army in 1940 began making plans for training soldiers in snow and cold-weather warfare.
The first site chosen for the training camp was West Yellowstone, Montana. However, that site was rejected because of potential disturbance to trumpeter swans, a rare species. In Colorado, both Aspen and Wheeler Junction, the latter now known more widely as Copper Mountain, were studied, but rejected because of their remoteness. This was well before Interstate 70, or even much of a predecessor. Eagle Park, located north of Leadville, was selected because it was along a transcontinental railroad.
