Civil War Monument - Aspen, CO - American Civil War Monuments and Memorials on Waymarking.com

The Pitkin County Courthouse stands at the southeast corner of Galena Street and Main Street in downtown Aspen, Colorado. Near the northwest corner of the Courthouse, stands a monument to Civil War soldiers on both sides of the conflict. It is believed that most of the former soldiers who moved to Aspen, 15 to 20 years after the war ended, were Union Army veterans.

Aspen was founded in 1879, when the fledgling community was named Ute City — some 14 years after the war ended. But Aspen's connections to the war are considerable. Numerous Civil War veterans of both the Union and Confederate armies moved to the area during the silver mining boom of the 1880s, when many more men than women resided here. Many of them passed away here, as evidenced by the dozens of gravesites at three local cemeteries: Ute, Aspen Grove and Red Butte.

After the war, veterans returned home to an economy and changed circumstances that encouraged them to move west. Soldiers who had survived years of gruesome war, especially the many who enlisted as teenagers, were not deterred from tackling the hardships of mining camps. Teens who had enlisted during the war reached their thirties when Aspen's boom years began. The Civil War conflagration, the seminal event of their lives, was balanced by the optimism of a thriving mining town.

The monument is sculpted out of stone, designed as a four-sided column, with a soldier standing on top, holding his rifle in front of him. He is dressed in a long army coat and wearing a kepi cap. Inscribed in the stone monument is the following:

TO THE
SOLDIERS OF 1861-1865
THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED
BY THEIR COMRADES
AND THE PATRIOTIC MEN AND
WOMEN OF ASPEN

1899

Date Installed or Dedicated: 01/01/1899 Name of Government Entity or Private Organization that built the monument: Men and Women of Aspen Union, Confederate or Other Monument: Other or General Civil War Rating (1-5): Photo or photos will be uploaded.: yes Related Website: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/31/2018 Outspoken1 visited it 06/21/2017 jenisgenes visited it 07/15/2011 Chasing Blue Sky visited it

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