6 westword.com WESTWORD OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 5, 2025 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | CALHOUN | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Ghost of a Chance PLANS FOR CIVIC CENTER AND A NEW MONUMENT AT THE STATE CAPITOL COULD REVIVE A POTENTIAL DEAD ZONE IN TIME FOR A PROPER 150TH CELEBRATION. BY PATRICIA CALHOUN From the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol, you can see across to the mountains, across the land that was once home to the Arapaho and Cheyenne. This is a land of ghosts. There are the ghosts of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe themselves, pushed out of this area to the southeastern corner of the Colorado territory, where tribal members amped under a white fl ag on the banks of the Big Sandy — most of them children, women and elderly adults — were killed by Colonel John Chivington’s volunteer soldiers on November 29, 1864. Descendants of the survivors were at the Capitol on October 26, fi nishing their annual healing run that had started at the National Sand Creek Massacre Historic Site outside of Eads, then headed 180 miles across the plains to Denver, following the route of the soldiers as they took their bloody souvenirs to the frontier town. The runners passed through Riverside Cemetery, where Captain Silas Soule, who refused to participate in the slaughter, is buried. They passed the plaque at 15th and Arapahoe streets, where Soule was assassinated in April 1865 after he testifi ed before one of three investiga- tions into that day — testimony that led to Congress labeling the events of Sand Creek a massacre, even as the horrors of the Civil War raged. And they ended the run with prayers at the Capitol, where one day a monument to this state’s true natives will stand on the former site of “On Guard,” a Civil War monument. That statue was designed by Captain Jack Howland, himself a veteran of the Union Army, and com- memorated the Colorado soldiers who’d died in the war, as well as the state’s military engagements. The Civil War soldier on top stood guard at the Capitol for more than a century, before it was toppled during the George Floyd protests in the spring of 2020. But the monument was controversial before then: Its original plaque listed the Sand Creek Massacre as one of the battles, and in 1999, the Colorado Leg- islature approved adding a new, interpretive plaque that explained the mischaracter- ization of that dark event and what had really hap- pened at Sand Creek. While the soldier fi gure, in all its graffiti-covered glory, has been temporarily housed at History Colorado, early next year it will move to a new home at the state’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. And even as the runners were chant- ing their prayers, the plinth on which the soldier had stood was packed away to the side, ready for relocation. A bridge too far Another monument in the historic Civic Center complex was supposed to take off from near this site: Governor Jared Polis’s $28 million Colo- rado150 Pedestrian Walkway, which was designed to link the Capitol with the Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park between Lincoln and Broadway. At one point, he proposed having that slip-and-slide-like monstrosity descend all the way into Civic Center Park, but Denver put an end to that when city of- fi cials very quietly insisted they wanted no part of the bridge. And then 94 percent of the Coloradans who participated in a hastily assembled July poll brought Polis’s proposal to a dead stop. But in the meantime, our gov- ernor had accomplished a remarkable feat: His bridge had connected the vast majority of the residents of this state...who were united in their hatred of the thing. There are better ways to commemorate Colorado’s 150th birthday. Denver has its own $50 million plan for Civic Center, which will entail much of the park being closed in 2026, when Colorado, the Centennial State, celebrates its 150th, even as the country marks its 250th an- niversary. This week, Denver City Council got a look at the $40 million contract for con- struction services on “Civic Center Next 100, Phase 1,” which will include improvements on three distinct but connected areas of the park: “Scope of work to include historic restoration of the Greek Theater (improve- ments to the theater’s stage, seating, light- ing, and audio-visual systems), landscape and hardscape improvements through the Central Promenade and the South Plaza, and a fully accessible route from the improved South Plaza entrance at 14th Ave. to the Voorhies Memorial at Colfax.” That’s right by the Pioneer Monument, whose own top figure, of controversial fron- tiersman Kit Carson, also disap- peared during the 2020 protests; this one was taken down by the city, however, and is reportedly being kept somewhere “safe.” In its fi rst round of grants, the Downtown Development Au- thority suggested giving $30 mil- lion of its estimated $570 million kitty to the Civic Center project, as well as $8 million to the Mc- Nichols Building at the edge of the park; at the October 20 coun- cil meeting, a majority of councilmembers approved expanding the DDA’s boundaries so that those grants could be made. Councilman Kevin Flynn voted against that, as did two other councilmembers — Sarah Parady and Shontel Lewis — whose votes rarely align with his. “I think it turns that beautiful space into an amusement park, and it makes it, in my view, kind of useless for the big celebrations we’ve had there,” Flynn says. And in the intervening week, he hasn’t changed his mind. “Leave Civic Center Park alone,” Flynn says. “It’s too much. It’s breaking up the historic landmark pattern to put little stuff here and little stuff there.” And it’s going to happen just as Colorado starts celebrating its 150th anniversary year, a time when citizens might want to gather in the heart of Colorado’s capital city, just down from the west steps of the Capitol. But with this city’s seemingly endless construction projects, is the party over before it begins? “So, we’re going to drag it out like 16th Street?” asks Flynn. Not exactly, it turns out. If council ap- proves the construction contract and the DDA grant, the project will defi nitely pro- ceed — but it won’t require that the entire park be closed for the duration, as was origi- nally rumored. That rumor was enough to scare off the popular Christkindl Market, which is producing its 2025 event on the Auraria Campus. But other events, those “big celebrations” Flynn cited, might still be able to return. The party’s not over...yet “Given the size and scale of the park, we will be able to activate certain areas while construction is underway,” says Stephanie Figueroa, spokesperson for Denver Parks & Recreation, which will be in charge of much of the project. And the Civic Center Conservancy, which helps maintain and activate the area (and raises money for it, including some of what will be needed to complete the $50 mil- lion project), plans to keep hosting its own events there — Civic Center EATS, the Night CALHOUN KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS “On Guard” at the Colorado Capitol, after a 2020 protest. Sand Creek Massacre National Historic site outside of Eads. EVAN SEMÓN NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE
