Range Rider Youth Corps Helps Clean up Sand Creek Site

By Alexa Roberts

Superintendent

During the week of June 13, Sand Creek Massacre NHS was surprised to receive a call from the Executive Director of the Colorado Range Rider Youth Corps, asking if the park could use the volunteer services of a group of Eastern Colorado youth the following week. Normally the Youth Corps operates on a fee-for-service basis, but this time a job the group had been scheduled for elsewhere had been cancelled and the crew was available free of charge.

The Colorado Range Riders is the newest addition to the eleven existing Colorado Youth Corps. The Youth Corps are independent, non-profit organizations that assist local communities in carrying out labor-intensive conservation and community development work, while providing job skills and educational opportunities to youth aged 16 to 25. The Range Riders serve all of eastern Colorado.

From June 19 to June 23, crew leaders Claudia Merwin, Kyle Atwater and Corps members Cayle Mines, La Junta; Glen Kirmer, Holly; Jo England, Las Animas; Kevin Romero, La Junta; Mike Weins, Fort Morgan; Brian Williams, Akron; Bret Dones, Sterling; Will Tucke, Brush; Ryan Weimer, Brush; Aryn Casados, Brush camped at the fairgrounds and spent three days working at the Sand Creek Massacre Site, clearing downed cottonwood limbs from a section of Sand Creek, removing scrap from around the Dawson ranch complex, repairing some fencing, and removing tumbleweeds and other vegetation from one of the ponds along the creek. Wednesday night the crew was rewarded for their hard work with a swim party at the pool. On Thursday morning, the crew worked at the County Fairgrounds, painting railings and dumping trash. Before the crew departed on Thursday afternoon, they had an educational program presented by Sand Creek Massacre Site Ranger Craig Moore.

Many people contributed on short notice to the making the Range Riders work week possible. The National Park Service sincerely thanks Pam Weirich with the CSU Extension Office, Bob Howerton at the Fairgrounds, Alysha Uhland, Anthony Voss, and Destiny Saffer at the swimming pool, Don Lynn, Rodney Hopkins and Darrel Stolzenberger at the County Shop, and the wonderful folks at the hospital who responded to a health emergency on Wednesday night.

The Colorado Range Riders will return to work at the Sand Creek Massacre Site and Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site for two weeks next summer. For more information on the Colorado Range Riders, please call Executive Director Helena Shea at (970) 522-7322, or visit the website at www.rangerideryouthcorps.org.

On Wednesday, June 15, approximately 50 graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be in Eads to hear a panel discussion on the establishment of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. The class, titled “The Santa Fe Trail: In Search of the Multi-Racial Past,” is traveling around the west learning first-hand about the complex, multi-racial history of the West and the lessons that the past holds for the twenty-first century.

After visiting various sites in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, the group will stop in Granada to visit Camp Amache and then travel on to Eads to learn about the Sand Creek Massacre. The focus of the visit will be a panel discussion about various perspectives on the establishment of the National Historic Site, discussed by Southern Cheyenne Sand Creek descendents Chief Laird Cometsevah and Joe Big Medicine, Southern Arapaho Sand Creek descendent William Lee Pedro, KCEDF Executive Director Janet Frederick, Kiowa County Commissioner Rod Brown, and Sand Creek Massacre NHS Superintendent Alexa Roberts.

The panel will be held from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. in the Kiowa County Courthouse meeting room and will be followed by lunch. The group will then proceed to the Sand Creek Massacre Site for further discussion. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend the panel discussion, and lunch can be purchased for $6.50 in advance or $7.00 at the door. If you are interested in attending or would like additional information, please call Alexa Roberts at 438-5916.