President Joe Biden is set to make Camp Hale an official national monument next week during a trip to Colorado.

The Los Angeles Times reported the development on Thursday, saying Biden and Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet will host an event on Wednesday for the official designation.

Camp Hale will be the first entirely new monument designated since Biden took office, the Times reported.

Located near Leadville, the 10th Mountain Division trained in Camp Hale for mountain and winter warfare during World War II. Designating the site as a national monument will protect its historic buildings and wildlife habitats from further development, as well as honor the veterans who trained there decades ago.

Colorado Democrats have been pushing for Camp Hale’s designation for years.

Bennet, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse have sponsored and continually reintroduced the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Economy (CORE) Act since 2019, a sweeping public lands bill that would designate Camp Hale as a national monument, in addition to protecting more than 400,000 acres of public land across the state.

The CORE Act has passed the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives five times but has so far failed to make it through the evenly divided U.S. Senate, needing the support of at least 60 senators to get past a filibuster threat by Republicans.

In August, Bennet, Hickenlooper, Neguse and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis sent a letter asking Biden to use executive action to make Camp Hale a national monument. A month later, Bennet delivered several more letters to Biden – from 34 Democratic state legislators, four veterans’ associations, three mayors, 22 county commissioners, 43 conservation groups and 47 local business owners – calling for the designation. 

“It is clear that Coloradans across the state support the conservation and preservation of these landscapes for future generations,” wrote Bennet, Hickenlooper, Neguse and Polis in the letter. “The history of this area, including the role that it played in preparing the 10th Mountain Division for some of the most difficult moments of World War II, makes it the ideal candidate for a national monument designation.”

Making Camp Hale a national monument is a long-promised victory for Bennet, who is running for reelection in November. The Los Angeles Times reported that the designation is meant to boost Democrat Bennet’s chances of defeating his opponent, Republican Joe O’Dea, who opposes the CORE Act.

Bennet did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Colorado Politics, but O’Dea criticized the move in a statement.

“Camp Hale is an amazing place,” O’Dea said. “(But) Biden and Bennet are moving the country badly in the wrong direction, and no amount of photo-ops in a place we all love will change this fact: accountability from the voters is coming soon.”

To designate Camp Hale as a national monument, Biden will have to use the 1906 Antiquities Act, which authorizes the president to protect public lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans. This will be the fourth time Biden has used the act as president, previously using it to restore full protections to three national monuments that President Donald Trump reduced in size.

Further details are not yet available regarding Biden’s trip to Colorado or which cities he will visit.

Colorado Politics reporter Ernest Luning contributed to this report.