Postcard Markers - Pikes Peak

Colorado Springs, Colorado

1963 postcard of Pikes Peak historical marker

As you head south from Denver, Pikes Peak looms down the freeway visible for miles through your front car window. In the 1940s and 1950s, the Colorado Department of Highways installed several large wood highway markers along US Route 85/87 informing you of the fact and providing a history of America's most celebrated peak. One of these highway markers near Colorado Springs was captured in a color postcard made by Thomas Dexter Press in the 1950s.

It was a good and lasting thing this postcard was created and captured the historical marker. Because this marker and like markers on Pikes Peak have disappeared. In the 1950s Colorado began transforming US Route 85/87 into freeways as part of the United States Interstate Highway System. This marker survived the first freeway improvements in this area that were completed in the 1960s and became an anchor for a scenic overlook. The overlook remained for several decades and was even augmented in the late 1980s when it commemorated Jasper D. Ackerman. This stop on the freeway became known as the Ackerman Overlook.

With age comes decay, and after more than 40 years this marker was removed in the early 2000s. Because the marker did not meet the then marker style for the Colorado Department of Transportation or the State Historical Society, it was not replaced. The Ackerman Overlook did not survive the second set of freeway improvements when the freeway was widened with more travel lanes. The Ackerman Overlook was moved in 2015 just 1/3 mile to the north on the freeway and now has interpretive signs on the United States Air Force Academy. But it has no historical markers on Pikes Peak, which still rises to the southwest of the scenic overlook.

General location of marker viewed from Interstate 25
Marker was removed in early 2000s and the overlook removed in 2013

Back side of postcard

Marker Information

Name:  Southwest Rises the Summit of Pikes Peak
Type:  Colorado Department of Highways Wood Highway Marker
Year Erected:  Prior to 1963
Location:  US Route 85/87 (now supplanted by Interstate 25) north of Colorado Springs, Colorado near US Air Force Academy
Location Coordinates:  38.974169, -104.807841

Marker Inscription:

Southwest Rises the Summit of
Pikes Peak
     This mountain, 14,110 feet above the sea and the most celebrated peak in America, is named for the explorer, Capt. Zebulon M. Pike, who saw it first in 1806. He attempted to climb it, failed and reported it unclimbable. Ascended in 1820 by Dr. Edwin James, a later explorer. A cog railway reached the summit in 1890 and a highway, in 1915. Motor races up the peak are held annually. The resort city of Colorado Springs, founded 1871, nestles at its foot where the first town called Colorado stood years earlier. The U. S. Air Force Academy rises ten miles north.
     Pikes Peak is famed for its history and conspicuous position. Colorado contains more than fifty mountains over 14,000 feet high.