From Pando to the Po: History Colorado Center’s massive ‘Winter Warriors’ exhibit showcases artifacts and stories from ski troopers

When the History Colorado Center in Denver last year converted an underused portion of the center’s basement into a 5,000-square-foot exhibition space, a large showcase of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division ski troopers became the first exhibit to utilize the new location.

History Colorado is home to the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center and has collected thousands of donations from ski troopers and their families, starting in the 1980s when veterans of the 10th created the resource center to ensure that their artifacts and stories were preserved for future generations.

Those artifacts and stories were used to create the new gallery, a temporary exhibit titled “Winter Warriors: The 10th Mountain Division in World War II.”

The large rooms in the newly renovated space contain enough area to showcase massive objects like an entire M29 Weasel cargo carrier, a fully set-up winter camping space and a statue of a pack mule, among many other items.

The items help tell the story of the 10th, starting not at its primary home in Eagle County’s Pando Valley, but in Fort Lewis, Washington, where the first ski troopers recruited by the National Ski Patrol trained on the slopes of Mount Rainier.

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The exhibit then delves heavily into the history of Camp Hale in the Pando Valley, detailing how prototype equipment like M29 Weasel tanks or lightweight waterproof tents were tested there, and how “four-legged recruits,” including 4,000 pack mules and 200 sled dogs, lived there with the soldiers.

Camp Hale, which in 2022 was named a national monument by President Joe Biden, was created as an Army training site in 1941 because the Pando Valley “had enough water to support up to 20,000 people, adjoined enough land for military training and maneuvering, and had the rocky topography suited to mountaineering,” according to the exhibit. “At a cost of $30 million, Camp Hale was the most expensive Army encampment built during World War II.”

The exhibit follows ski troopers from Camp Hale to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska where the 10th Mountain Division’s 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment attempted to retake Kiska, an island that had been seized by Imperial Japan early in the war. The exhibit also details time spent by the 10th in Texas following Camp Hale, marked by high temperatures and low morale, before deploying to Europe.

“Winter Warriors” then details the ski troopers exploits in Europe, where the German army had established a stronghold on Mount Belvedere in Italy, controlling “the valley between its foothills and an unnamed ridge to the west, code-named ‘Ridge X.'”

Ridge X, better known today as Riva Ridge, was taken in stealth fashion, which the exhibit showcases through an artifact from 10th Mountain Division trooper Ralph Hulbert, who was nicknamed “Ralph the Hunter.”

Ralph the Hunter was an avid sportsman and an expert shot with a bow and arrow, which is why he was selected for the Riva Ridge mission.

“The element of surprise was paramount to the night attack, and the soldiers had been forbidden to use their rifles until they reached the top of the ridge,” according to the exhibit.

Hulbert’s custom-made take-down bow, which was used to kill a German lookout soldier during the assault on Riva Ridge, is on display.

From Riva Ridge, to Mount Belvedere, to the Po River Valley in Italy and the shores of Lake Garda, the exhibit continues to follow the 10th, detailing how the ski troopers took Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s lakeside villa in April of 1945. Mussolini’s fez hat and his fencing sword, captured in the raid, are on display.

Nordic ski troopers are also featured prominently, with the exhibit sharing information about Simo “The White Death” Hayha, “a 34-year old Finnish farmer who rose to international fame as the world’s deadliest sniper.” Space is dedicated to the 10th Mountain Division’s 99th infantry battalion, nicknamed the Viking Battalion, which consisted of Norwegians and Norwegian-American soldiers and saw combat in Germany.

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“Some of (the Viking Battalion) members were recruited by General William ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan for clandestine work with the Office of Strategic Services, parachuting behind enemy lines in occupied France, China and Norway,” according to the exhibit.

A 7-foot long Finnish Lahti L-39 20mm anti-tank rifle is among the larger items on display.

While the artifacts draw in the viewer, the exhibit focuses heavily on the people of the 10th, from its famous members like founder Minnie Dole, Brigadier Gen. William Darby and future politician Bob Dole (no relation to Minnie), to ordinary soldiers like Deborah Bankart-Eddy and Cruz Rios.

Seattle native Ralph Bromaghin is featured to tell the complete story of the 10th, starting in Washington. Bromaghin was a ski instructor at Sun Valley, Idaho, before becoming one of the first ski troopers to train at Mount Rainier.

“In 1940, Ralph enrolled at the University of Washington, but Minnie Dole soon recruited him in his quest for experienced skiers for a new unit of ski troop,” according to the exhibit.

Bromaghin died in the war and now has a mountain named after him near Sun Valley. A yellowed newspaper clipping from 1945 which comforted Bromaghin’s family is among the artifacts on display at the Winter Warriors exhibit. It reads:

In each letter from over there he’d say
“Don’t worry mother, I’m O.K.”
Then into battle he went
My son so dear to me.
There his heart was ever stilled
To make his country free.
Never again will I adoringly trace
The little smile wrinkles in his handsome face.
Or ruffle his straight black hair with a joyous twirl,
Or have him tell me I’m his “best girl.”
But always, always I’ll hear him say
“Don’t worry, mother, I’m O.K.”

“Winter Warriors” will remain on display at the History Colorado Center in Denver through Oct. 12.