The No Pingree Task Force, a small group devoted to renaming landmarks that honored George Pingree, a participant in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, announced Sunday that it had succeeded in its work, and that the Board on Geographic Names in March approved a request to change the names of Pingree Park and Pingree Hill near Fort Collins.
The two landmarks will be renamed Soule Park and Soule Hill, respectively, after Capt. Silas Soule, who was also present at the massacre but commanded the cavalry company not to fire on the defenseless Native Americans.
“I’m excited, happy,” John Gascoyne, spokesperson for the task force, said Monday. “I feel really good about it.”
The change, , earned the support of former Fort Collins Mayor Jenni Arndt and all three members of the Larimer Board of County Commissioners, Kristin Stephens, John Kefalas and Jody Shadduck-McNally, according to a press release announcing the decision.
Hundreds of Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped near Fort Lyon were killed on Nov. 29, 1864. According to the National Parks Service, the Native Americans camped there, largely women and children, were among a party negotiating for peace with American officials before being slaughtered by American forces under the command of Col. John Chivington.
According to the task force, George Pingree, a volunteer scout with the company, was among the most brutal perpetrators of the massacre, taking 13 scalps from dead Native Americans and trading them to a barber in Denver in exchange for free haircuts.
Following the massacre, Pingree travelled north in search of lumber for railroad ties, establishing a camp west of Fort Collins in a valley that would take his name, Pingree Park, a USGS designation until this year,
The university established a satellite campus in the valley in 1914, formerly known as Pingree Park Mountain Campus. While it was named for the valley in which it was located, and not the man, , according to CSU, though the official designation of the geographic location remained until now.
Soule, like Pingree, was present at the massacre, but the two men’s opposite reaction to the killing of civilians makes for a fitting replacement name, Gascoyne said.
After commanding his troops not to fire, , describing the events before and during the massacre.
“Two different white people who had two totally different positions on the massacre,” he said. “He was a great man.”
Just months after his testimony, Soule was killed on a street in Denver, possibly by someone who was present at the massacre, Gascoyne said. According to the task force, members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes run annual relays near the anniversary of the massacre from Sand Creek to Denver, pausing to pay respects at the spot where Soule was killed. Input from Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal leaders helped shape the recommended name change, according to the task force.
The task force, which included Gascoyne, Janet Duvall and Evan Green, was spearheaded by Bernard “Bear” Jack Gebhardt, who died in 2024 before he could see his work completed.
Gascoyne said that the man would be pleased.
“I think he’d think itap wonderful,” Gascoyne said. “I think he’d be fulfilled by it.”
