Colorado Springs – Oh, beautiful it isn’t.
The uncomely cinderblock summit house at the top of 14,110-foot Pikes Peak doesn’t fit in with the majestic views, so a movement has begun to build a new one.
The hope is to designate the peak a national monument, freeing millions of dollars in federal funds to rebuild the 42-year-old structure.
Terry Sullivan, president and chief executive of Experience Colorado Springs at Pikes Peak, proposed the idea because “in 10 years we’re going to be faced with a summit house that is going to fall off the mountain.”
The unimpressive, one-story building contains a snack bar, curio shop and bunks for summer employees. It sits atop permafrost, has inadequate infrastructure and is built on temporary jacks, Sullivan said.
And he said it doesn’t match the grandeur of the mountain.
“It ought to be a panoramic vista,” Sullivan said. “It ought to be situated in such a way that people could sit there and sip a cup of hot chocolate and look out over the plains of eastern Colorado. It ought to be a statement that’s worthy of the actual mountain being referred to as ‘America’s Mountain.”‘
A building with a contemporary look, or one that matches Colorado style, would cost more than $10 million, Sullivan said. Construction costs would reflect that materials would have to be carried up the winding, 17-mile Pikes Peak Highway.
The city, which has a contract to operate Pikes Peak Highway and the summit house until 2020, cannot rebuild until it paves the Pikes Peak Highway, under an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service. The city is on pace to pave the remaining 5 miles by 2012.
If the national designation is approved, Pikes Peak would join other natural landmarks: Mount St. Helens in Washington and Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
Brent Botts, district ranger of the Pike National Forest, said places like Mount St. Helens received funding after they were in the national spotlight.
He’s uncertain whether a national designation would bring the mountain more notoriety.
“Pikes Peak itself already has quite a bit of status, regardless of what word you put behind it,” Botts said.
It is the second-most-visited peak in the world, behind Mount Fuji in Japan. The mountain draws 500,000 visitors annually who arrive by car, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway or on foot, via Barr Trail.
In 1975, it was listed as a national historic landmark. It is the place where Katherine Lee Bates penned “America the Beautiful” and the site of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, the second-oldest road race in the nation, behind the Indianapolis 500.
Should it become a monument, little would change, Botts said.
“It’s managed as a quasi-national park as it is. It has the visitor’s center at the top, it’s got the highway. I don’t see anything changing since we have this long-term contract with the city of Colorado Springs,” Botts said.
Congressman Doug Lam born, a Colorado Springs Republican, is backing the designation effort.
“Pikes Peak is a valuable part of our country’s heritage worthy of being designated as a national monument. This recognition will encourage people throughout our nation and the world to visit Pikes Peak and see its beauty for themselves.”
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
