Thank you for your service
In 1999, Congress designated May as Military Appreciation Month to honor our service members and their families. Colorado Springs is home to five military installations and a large number of veterans and retirees who have chosen to make this area their home when their service is done.
We created a map with some of the stories of our military heroes and those who have been honored or memorialized with a park, trail, or open space. When researching these areas, we discovered a rich history, some incredible efforts, and a renewed sense of gratitude for those who serve and have served in our military.
Click on the map below for locations and information on these remarkable people. (We will be adding more to the site, keep checking back.)
Can you think of any parks or trails we have missed or know more of the stories of these men and women? Feel free to send them to us at info@trailsandopenspaces.org
★ Palmer Park ★
The land for Palmer Park was donated to the city of Colorado Springs by General William Jackson Palmer in 1902.
Palmer was an engineer who helped with the expanding railroads. During the war, he was promoted to Brigadier General in the Union Army. After the war, he made financial contributions to the educational efforts of the freed former slaves from the South.
He headed west in 1867 and helped build the Kansas Pacific Railway. With his friend, Dr. William Abraham Bell, they founded the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Their company eventually operated the largest narrow gauge railroad in the United States.
Palmer and Bell helped introduce the practice of burning coal in railroad engines and the use of narrow gauge railways. Palmer developed a steel mill in Pueblo and founded the city of Colorado Springs in 1871. It was first known as Fountain Colony, with the name later changing to Colorado Springs.
Palmer and Bell also founded Manitou Springs, with Palmer spending a hefty sum to build roads and parks in the town.
In all, Palmer would provide funding for churches, schools, parks, and donated a total of 1,270 acres of land. He also provided the land and funding for the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, libraries, and a tuberculosis sanitorium.
He was married to Mary Lincoln (Queen) Mellen and the couple had three daughters. They built their home near Colorado Springs that would eventually be known as Glen Eyrie.
After suffering a fall from his horse, Palmer was confined to a wheelchair from a spinal cord injury. Since he was unable to travel, he hosted a reunion of his 15th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment in 1907. He paid the travel expenses for 208 surviving members.
Palmer passed away on March 13, 1909, leaving an incredible legacy in our area and city.
★ Ford Frick Park ★
While Frick was not enrolled in the service, he did work for the War Department during WWI and tried to help national defense efforts while president of the National League.
Ford Frick’s resume is often highlighted by his career in baseball, first as president of the National League then serving as Commissioner of Major League baseball from 1951 to 1965. He had a major role in establishing the Baseball Hall of Fame to honor the best player in the sport’s history and then was admitted into that group on his own in 1970.
Prior to that, he played baseball first for DePauw University, then moved to Colorado to play semipro baseball in Walsenburg. He then moved to Colorado Springs where he taught English at Colorado Springs High School and at Colorado College. He also covered sports and news at The Gazette until he left to work for the war department toward the end of WWI.
In his position, he supervised training in the rehabilitation division of the War Department for Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
In 1941, Ford Frick was President of the National League. He traveled to Washington to met with General George C. Marshall of the U.S. Army to offer the services of the National League to the national defense efforts by providing recreation for the soldiers.
Frick is often credited for his part in breaking down the color barrier in baseball as he supported Jackie Robinson playing and threatened any players protesting his playing would be suspended themselves.
★ George Fellows Park ★
George Harvey Fellows was born in 1920 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. After college, he served from 1944 – 1946 in the U. S. Navy during WWII. After the war, he went to work first as a Civil Engineer then embarked on a long career of municipal service which included serving as City Manager for Pueblo, then Colorado Springs.
During his 19 years as City Manager in Colorado Springs, the city more than doubled its population to 250,000 and nearly tripled its land area. He was very involved in the community and various organizations.
★ Fremont Park ★
John Charles Fremont was a Georgia native that made his mark in history as an American explorer, politician, and military officer.
Fremont led a number of expeditions into the western states becoming known as The Pathfinder. He had a particular talent for documenting his findings, creating maps, publications, and maps. These publications gave many Americans accessibility to the American West. One such map showed the entire length of the Oregon Trail.
As a major in the Mexican-American War, he took control of California from the California Republic. He also led troops in a number of massacres against indigenous peoples.
Fremont was involved in a dispute over who was the rightful military governor of California and as a result was convicted of mutiny and insubordination. He was reinstated by President Polk, but Fremont resigned from the Army, opting to settle in Monterey, California. He became quite wealthy when gold was discovered on some of his land in the Sierra foothills.
He was elected as one of the first two senators to represent the new state of California in 1850.
When the Civil War began in 1861, President Lincoln gave command of the Department of the West to Fremont. A longtime opponent of slavery, he issued an unauthorized emancipation edict and ran afoul of Lincoln, who relieved him of his command as a result.
Fremont then moved to New York where he was nominated for president by the Radical Democracy Party, but he withdrew before the election took place. After, he lost much of his fortune in the failed Pacific Railroad, then more in the Panic of 1873. In 1878, President Rutherford Hayes appointed him governor of the Arizona Territory, where he would serve until 1881. He resigned when asked to spend more time in the territory rather than in New York where he lived.
Fremont’s expeditions and his detailed documentation gave the public some of the earliest authentic graphic images of Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Colorado.
Fremont is also known for symbolically claiming the West for the United States by planting an American flag on the Rocky Mountains during his first expedition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Fremont
★ Memorial Park (Colorado Springs) ★
This large city park in Downtown Colorado Springs hosts a memorial for those who sacrificed their lives in service to our country. Each branch of the military is represented in addition to a memorial wall for Vietnam Veterans.
★ Memorial Park (Woodland Park) ★
★ Roy Benavidez Park ★
Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez was born in south Texas and orphaned at a young age. He eventually lived with an uncle, but dropped out of school in order to go to work. At 19, he joined the Army and attended airborne school, then became a Green Beret.
During his first tour in Vietnam, Benavidez was on a solo reconnaissance mission and stepped on a land mine. He was evacuated back to the United States where doctors said he would never walk again. Against doctors’ wishes, he would crawl out of bed at night and make his way to the wall near his bed and eventually pushed himself up the wall with his legs and ankles. He remained in the hospital a year and despite the prediction of his doctors, he walked out of the facility with his wife by his side. Incredibly, he returned to South Vietnam in 1968 and started his second tour.
On May 2, 1968, Benavidez heard the cry for help of “get us out of here” over the radio and boarded a helicopter to respond. They had been ambushed by North Vietnamese troops and most were either dead or wounded. Benavidez directed the helo to land in a nearby clearing and jumped from the aircraft, running under fire to the team. Though injured himself, he carried and dragged half the wounded team members to the helicopter. During this rescue, he continued to encourage the wounded men to keep up the will to fight and live.
During the second trip bringing wounded men to the helicopter, he was attacked from behind be an enemy soldier. He sustained additional wounds to his head on top of wounds sustained to his abdomen and back. He made one last trip around the perimeter to make sure all classified documents had been retrieved from the fallen team members, then finally allowed them to pull him into the helicopter and leave the area.
Benavidez had a total of 37 separate bullet, bayonet, and shrapnel wounds from the fight with the enemy battalion.
He was evacuated to Fort Sam Houston to recover. He retired in 1976.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Benavidez
https://www.nasaa-home.org/benavidez/afteraction.htm
★ Captain Lyon Memorial Park ★
Captain David Lyon was killed in action December 27, 2013 while conducting combat operations near Kabul, Afghanistan. He was one of ten who perished in an attack when a roadside bomb detonated near his convoy.
Lyon was a 2008 graduate of the Air Force Academy and a three-year letter winner for the Air Force Falcons track and field team. His athletic accomplishments included being team captain from 2007-2008, earning a conference title in the shot put at the 2008 Mountain West Indoor Championships, receiving the Laura Piper Ironman Award, and being named to the National Strength and Conditioning Association All American Team.
Peterson Schriever Memorial Article
★ Pershing Field (Fort Carson) ★
John J. Pershing was born September 13, 1860 in Laclede, Missouri. He was a graduate of West Point (he later revealed he applied not because he was interested in the military, but rather because the education was free and better than what he would have had access to in rural Missouri.)
During the Spanish-American War, he served on the western front. He also served in the Philippines and served as commander of a mission against Pancho Villa in Mexico.
He was appointed commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) during World War I where he maintained the AEF as an independent army, resisting the Allied efforts to use US forces as replacements for fallen French and British troops.
Pershing led the AEF forces during the war in successful offensives in St. Mihiel Salient and Meuse-Argonne where they helped defeat the German forces. In 1919, he was promoted to General of the Armies – the only person to achieve that rank during his lifetime.
His nickname “Black Jack” came from his time leading the 10th Cavalry division – the Buffalo Soldiers – the African American unit formed in 1866.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Pershing
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/john-j-pershing
★ Manhart Field (Fort Carson) ★
Major General Ashton Herbert Manhart was the first native Coloradan Commanding General assuming command of the 9th Infantry Division and Fort Carson in 1960. When the 9th Infantry was disbanded, he assumed command of the reactivated 5th Infantry Division in 1962.
Manhart was the son of the postmaster of Sedalia, Colorado and his wife. After attending the Colorado School of Mines, he enrolled in West Point in 1928. After graduation, he was assigned as a lieutenant in the infantry, making his way up in rank to three star general.
He served as both a battalion commander then a regimental commander in the 3rd Infantry Division during WWII. After campaigns in Tunisia and Italy, he took command of the 135th Infantry Division which saw action in the Korean War.
After a stint as staff officer with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, he was transferred to Fort Carson, commanding the 9th Infantry Division as a brigadier general. In 1962, he was promoted to major general then to lieutenant general in 1966.
Manhart retired in 1967 and passed away in 1969.
★ Iron Horse Park (Fort Carson) ★
Named for the 4th Infantry Division of the US Army. The “Steadfast and Loyal” division has a long history starting at its formation on 10 December 1917. Now stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, this division is often referred to as the Ivy Division for the Roman numeral four – IV – which sounds like “Ivy” when read aloud. Known also for their speed and power, they have also been nicknamed the Iron Horse Division.
The 4th Infantry Division was chosen to lead operations on D-Day in World War II on the day the Allied Forces invaded the beaches of Normandy.
Their training and preparation led them to a huge success when it was time to carry out their mission and they quickly recaptured the beach for the Allies.
The name “Iron Horse” came about when the division converted to a Mechanized Division during the Cold War. While more often known by its original nickname of the Ivy Division, the Iron Horse moniker still remains with them.