Historic plaque stolen from west side of Garden of the Gods
Somebody — or more likely a couple of pretty strong people — managed to pry an historic brass plaque from a rock on the west side of Garden of the Gods park near Rampart Range Road and take it away.
The great grandson of the man it honors just hopes it has not been sold for scrap and melted down.
The plaque was reported missing Monday, said Kurt Schroeder, parks, trails and open space manager for Colorado Springs. Schroeder did not know when the plaque was taken.
The plaque is two by two-and-one-half feet in size, weighs close to 100 pounds and was fastened to the rock with old lag bolts, said Douglass Keithley Edmundson, whose great-grandfather is honored on the plaque.
Edmundson is offering a $100 reward for information related to the whereabouts of the plaque or the people who took it.
“It had to have been a couple of adults with big four-foot prybars,” Edmundson said. “It isn’t like somebody went and peeled it back with a can opener or something.”
The stolen plaque was installed in the 1930s and dedicated to Everard Spencer Keithley, supervisor for Pike National Forest in the early 20th century and responsible for much of the lobbying to build Rampart Range Road during the Great Depression.
Edmundson said the plaque was likely stolen for scrap, and the scrap metal shops he called around the Springs are buying scrap brass for $1.87 per pound.
“I would eat my hat if somebody stole this plaque and took it and set it in their living room or yard,” Edmundson said, adding that if it isn’t found his family plans to raise money to install a new one.
Colorado Springs police spokesman Sgt. Steve Noblitt said in property theft cases the department typically takes a statement but does not have the staff to follow up, unless a suspect is named.
The theft is representative of a rising level of vandalism at Garden of the Gods, said Bret Tennis, Garden of the Gods program coordinator.
Tennis said park employees frequently catch people — both teens and adults — destroying historic signatures by carving their own names in the rocks, and park maintenance crews find beer bottles and other evidence of teens hanging out around the park at night.
Someone destroyed the power source to the park’s main restroom, forcing staff to close the restrooms Wednesday for repairs.
“We don’t want to have to erect fences around everything,” Tennis said. “We’ve still had some debates about what we can do to handle it. We’ve tried to increase our presence around the park with volunteers.”
Anyone with information on the plaque’s theft can call the Garden of the Gods visitor center at 719-219-0108.
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