Go to the listed coords and read about the Ski Troopers of the 10th Mountain Division. Collect some numbers and then go to the final
In February of 1945, the 10th Mountain Division's first major combat operation resulted in a tremendous loss of lives. In 19 days of combat 99A Ski Troops lost their lives and 41B4 were wounded.
In December of 1944 the 8Cth Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division entered the Italian Theater of Operations to be followed by the 8Dth and 8Eth Regiments.
Then go to N 44° 31.CEB, W 072° 46.AED
How the 10th Mountain statute came to Stowe is a compelling tale.
The original statue was built and dedicated in Colorado in 1977, and now sits in the town of Vail, Co. Don Traynor, a veteran of the division, built it to remember fallen soldiers. Building the molds and casting the bronze statue cost nearly $100,000.
“We have a place in Vail and we used to hug (the statue) every time we went by,” Jann Perkins said with a laugh.
Chuck Perkins bought a small, 2-foot-tall version of the statue for the Vermont Ski Museum in Stowe as a Christmas gift to Jann.
But then they discovered the original molds for the 13-foot statue were still intact, though they were slated for demolition.
The Perkinses got the molds saved and had their very own 10th Mountain soldier statue made for $45,000.
The question was, where to put it?
“There really were four choices,” Chuck Perkins said.
The Perkinses wanted to put it in the Vermont Ski Museum, but there was no room. A plan to put it up on town-owned park land was dropped because some people thought the statue was “too military” for the village’s image, Chuck Perkins said. The third choice was Stowe Mountain Resort, but major construction work had enveloped the Spruce Peak area, and the resort said its best choice was near the entrance to Smugglers’ Notch. That location was too remote, in Chuck Perkins’ view.
“We were afraid it might be vandalized out there,” he said.
So, the Perkinses put the statue up on their land on Mountain Road, across from the former Miguel’s Stowe Away restaurant. In its five-year stay on Mountain Road, the statue gathered quite a reputation. Memorial services for members of the 10th Mountain Division were held there, and there was even a sort of “peace summit” with soldiers from several countries that fought in World War II.
“It was great,” Chuck Perkins said. “It was different countries coming together, and they all came together to try to make a peaceful world.”
New digs
Still, the Perkinses always wanted the statue to be at Stowe Mountain Resort, and with 10 years’ worth of Spruce Peak development nearing completion, the resort called the Perkinses to see if the offer still stood. It did, and now the trooper is on loan to the resort for 10 years. It’s been placed near the Spruce Camp base lodge, near the Stowe Mountain Lodge luxury hotel and the ski lifts that serve Spruce Peak.