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Volunteers reporting on community issues in Monument, Palmer Lake, and the surrounding Tri-Lakes area

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John Heiser

Letters to Our Community – LPHS After Prom thanks

Thanks to our great community of parents, LP staff, and students, After Prom 2024 was a huge success! We had approximately 450+ students attend the event themed “Around the World in 80 Days.

Many school districts do not offer an After Prom, as the planning and coordination involve a substantial amount of time and money. Both District 38 high schools have such a dedicated group of staff, parents, and community patrons that we have been able to make After Prom a yearly tradition.

Much of the financial support comes from family, community, and local business donations. We would like to recognize the following: Tri-Lakes Printing, Something New Boutique, Arlene’s Beans, Horseshoe Donuts, Broadmoor World Arena, Chick-fil-A Northgate , Mountain High Kettle Corn, Chipotle, City Rock, Costa Vida, Crumbl Cookies, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Glowgolf, IHOP InterQuest, Jeff Schmidt—State Farm, Jennifer Clinard Realtor—Front Range Real Estate Professionals, Josh & John’s Ice Cream , Kendra Scott, Lost Island Miniature Golf & Adventure Park, Main Event, Michelle Provencio, Realtor, The Cutting Edge, Realtors, MOD Pizza, Only One You, Overdrive Raceway, PF Chang’s, Qdoba, Raising Cane’s, Scheels, Slim Chickens, Snarf’s sandwiches ,Texas Roadhouse, Top Golf, Torchy’s Tacos, Vibes Baseball, Water World.

We had over 100 volunteers who helped with duties including purchasing prizes, mailing invitations, organizing/transporting/providing food, decorating, working on the night of the event, and cleaning up the day after.

A special thank you goes to the After Prom committee: Lori Benton, Liz Scott, Jenn Clinard, Michelle Provencio, Nicole Pritchard, and Liz Meggett. Many thanks also to our amazing LP Staff led by Principal Bridget O’Connor, Coach Tupper, and

Paul Lugauer.
Michelle Oliger
After Prom Chair, Lewis-Palmer High School

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Disclaimer: The information and opinions expressed in Letters to Our Community are the responsibility of the letter writers and should not be interpreted as the views of OCN even if the letter writer is an OCN volunteer.

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Between the Covers at Covered Treasures Bookstore – Military history for Memorial Day

By the staff at Covered Treasures

“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”—Alexander Hamilton

May is the month to pay tribute to the men and women who have served in the U.S. military. It’s the perfect time to learn the history of the U.S. in relation to the wars we have fought.

Masters of the Air
By Donald Miller (Simon Schuster) $23

Masters of the Air is the deeply personal story of the American bomber boys in World War II who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. This is a story of life in wartime England and in the German prison camps, where tens of thousands of airmen spent part of the war. It ends with an account of the hunger marches that the captured airmen were forced to make near the end of the war through the country their bombs destroyed.

Valiant Women
By Lena Andrews (Mariner Books) $33

Valiant Women is the story of the 350,000 American women who served in uniform during World War II. These incredible women served in every service branch, in every combat theater, and in nearly two-thirds of the available military occupations at the time. They were pilots, codebreakers, ordnance experts, gunnery instructors, metalsmiths, chemists, translators, parachute riggers, truck drivers, radar men, pigeon trainers, and much more. They were directly involved in some of the most important moments of the war, from the D-Day landings to the peace negotiations in Paris.

The War to End All Wars
By Russell Freedman (Clarion Books) $12

This book for young readers illuminates the complex and rarely discussed subject of World War I: The tangled relationships and alliances of many nations, the introduction of modern weaponry, and top-level military decisions that resulted in thousands upon thousands of casualties all contributed to the “great war,” which people hoped and believed would be the only conflict of its kind.

What Was Pearl Harbor?
By Patricia Brennan Demuth (Penguin Workshop) $8

On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese war planes appeared out of nowhere to bomb the American base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It was a highly secretive and devastating attack: four battleships sunk, more than 2,000 servicemen died, and the United States was propelled into World War II. In a compelling, easy-to-read narrative, children will learn all about a pivotal moment in American history.

The Vietnam War
By Geoffrey Ward & Kenneth Burns (Vintage) $25

More than 40 years have passed since the end of the Vietnam War, but its memory continues to loom large in the national psyche. This book offers a fresh and insightful account of the long and brutal conflict that reunited Vietnam while dividing the United States as nothing else had since the Civil War. Most of the voices that echo from these pages belong to less exalted men and women—those who fought in the war as well as those who fought against it, both victims and victors—willing for the first time to share their memories of the war as it really was.

Colorado Women in World War II
By Gail M. Beaton (University Press of Colorado) $34

This book interweaves nearly 80 oral histories of World War II—including interviews, historical studies, newspaper accounts, and organizational records—and historical photographs (many from the interviewees themselves) to shed light on women’s participation in the war, exploring the dangers and triumphs they felt, the nature of their work, and the lasting ways in which the war influenced their lives.

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
By Stacy Schiff (Back Bay Books) $22

Samuel Adams helped to mastermind the Boston Tea Party. He employed every tool available to rally a town, a colony, and eventually a band of colonies behind him, creating the cause that created a country. For his efforts, he became the most wanted man in America: When Paul Revere rode to Lexington in 1775, it was to warn Samuel Adams that he was about to be arrested for treason. This book highlights Adams’ improbable life, illuminating his transformation from the aimless son of a well-off family to tireless, beguiling radical who mobilized the colonies. Arresting, original, and surprisingly dramatic, this is a long-overdue chapter in the history of our nation.

Until next month, happy reading.

The staff at Covered Treasures can be reached at ocn.me@books.

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May Library Events – Call for teen volunteers; CD swap program

By Harriet Halbig

As summer approaches, teens are encouraged to volunteer to help with the Summer Adventure reading program. Activities will include helping children register for the program and tracking their progress, help with special programs, and help with everyday library functions. To apply, go to www.ppld.org/teens/volunteer.

The Monument Library will sponsor a CD swap from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 11. Bring new or gently used CDs and trade for music that’s new to you. You will also learn how to access music resources such as Freegal which are available through the library website.

Come to the Palmer Lake Library from 2 to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8 to make a handy farmers market tote bag for your summer purchases. You will be provided with a tote bag and stencils and other tools to decorate to your heart’s content. One tote bag per person and registration is required. Visit www.ppld.org, programs by location.

Please note that all Pikes Peak Library locations will be closed on Monday, May 27, in observance of Memorial Day.

Harriet Halbig may be reached at harriethalbig@ocn.me.

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Palmer Lake Historical Society, April 18 – Trolley cars, past and future

By Marlene Brown

The Palmer Lake Historical Society (PLHS) April meeting hosted John Haney, a founding member of the Pikes Peak Trolley Museum and Restoration Shop. He has co-written three books on the history of streetcars and trolley systems. Haney’s talk centered on the streetcar system in Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. He is a native of Colorado Springs and his family has been here since the1890s.

Beginning in 1887, streetcars were pulled by horses. Called horsecars, they traveled along Tejon Street and Cascade Avenue, stopping at the restaurants and saloons in the new city of Colorado Springs. They would go to the north end to the 1888 Rock Island Roundhouse in the community of Roswell to turn around. This building is just west of Cascade near Penrose Hospital. The Roundhouse is now being operated by the Pikes Peak Street Railway Foundation for the Trolley Museum and Restoration Shop. For more information, see www.coloradospringstrolleys.com.

By 1900 came the electric trolley cars. The electric trolley line was called the “Colorado Springs Rapid Transit Railway Co.” The trolleys could go 20 miles per hour. On South Tejon, near Las Animas Street and Sierra Madre, there was a building called the Car Barn. Starting 1906, this is where the maintenance and the building of new streetcars were done. There are still remnants of the buildings used, and some of the buildings are occupied today.

Traveling roundtrip to Manitou Springs began at the Santa Fe Train Depot on Pikes Peak Avenue. It traveled west on Colorado Avenue though Old Colorado City to the Loop. The Loop was built to turn around the cars to return on the route. The Loop is located at the intersection of Ruxton and Manitou Avenues where the restaurant, The Loop, is located.

The trolleys ran in the Springs until 1932. By then, most people owned an automobile and then came the beginning of the Great Depression, when people did not have money to ride the trolleys. Many of the streetcars were dismantled during WWII for metal parts. Some the cars were sold and became cottages and shops. Many are still around today.

There has been an interest in bringing trolleys back in the Springs. The intent by the museum foundation and volunteers is to preserve and maintain historic and vintage trolleys and the Roundhouse for future street railway operations. See www.coloradospringstrolleys.com/overview.

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PLHS meetings are usually held on the third Thursday of the month at Palmer Lake Town Hall, 42 Valley Crescent, Palmer Lake. The next meeting will be held May 16, 7-8 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.). Gail Beaton will be portraying “Gail Murphy: Colorado’s Rosie the Riveter.”

For more information on this and future presentations and membership to PLHS, go to www.palmerdividehistory.org.

Marlene Brown can be reached at marlenebrown@ocn.me.

Above: PLHS volunteers and board members that have worked at the Trolley Museum are, from left, John Cusak, Palmer Lake resident who operates one of the trolleys at the museum; John Haney, founding member of the museum and restoration shop; Michael Walker, volunteer; and Wayne Russert, PLHS board director who has worked many volunteer hours on electrical projects and more. Photo by Marlene Brown.

Other Palmer Lake Historical Society (PLHS) columns

On the Trail (in memory of Tim Watkins) – Cadets build bridge over Monument Creek

By Steve Pate

A crew of senior cadet engineering students from the U.S Air Force Academy (USAFA) have been working during their 2023-24 final year at the academy to design and build a bridge across Monument Creek to connect a newly improved section of the Creekside Trail to the Elephant Rock property area (not the Elephant Rock near Ben Lomand).

During their final semester, the cadets made multiple trips to the site for measurements and design and prepared proposals to the Palmer Lake Parks and Trails commission (PLP&T) who selected the proposal they believed would best meet the needs of the community and satisfy Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department.

The bridge links a trail from the Palmer Lake Glen area to and through the Elephant Rock property west of Highway 105 to allow residents and visitors to hike and bike from Palmer Lake through the scenic area.

The senior cadets, led by retired U.S. Army Col. Dr. Brad Wambeke, professor of Engineering at the USAFA, designed the bridge using logs from the Upper Palmer Lake Reservoir left from wildfire mitigation work by the USFS last year. The logs were hauled from the upper reservoir by the Palmer Lake Fire Department and milled, pre-drilled and coated at the USAFA before being used at the construction site.

Only the cost of materials, about $15,000 of a $17,000 budgeted by the PLP&T, was paid for from funds generated by the parking kiosk at the Reservoirs Trailhead. All the design and construction work was done as a learning experience for the senior cadets as their capstone project before graduation and moving on to their initial assignments in the U.S. Air Force.

The project involved a great deal of coordination between volunteers on the PLP&T, including Project Lead Gene Kalesti, Commissioners Kevin Magner and Reid Wiecks and Professor Wambeke.

A cadet team returned to the construction site April 19 to put finishing touches on their work. A dedication ceremony will be held on May 6 at 10 a.m.

The USAFA will build two additional bridges along the trail system to improve access by bikes as well as hikers as an educational project for senior cadet engineering students over the coming year or two.

Steve Pate can be contacted at stevepate@ocn.me.

Above: Cadets building bridge, April 13. Photo by Steve Pate.
Above: Cadet team finishing bridge work, April 19. Photo by Steve Pate.

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