President Biden arrives in Colorado ahead of Camp Hale visit9News

President Joe Biden will travel to Colorado on Wednesday to establish Colorado’s Camp Hale as a national monument, acquiescing to a years-long request from the state’s political leaders.

The Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument is the first entirely new monument designation since Biden took office. The designation, which Biden made by using the 1906 Antiquities Act, occurred amid speculation it would boost the chances of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who faces Republican Joe O’Dea in the November election.

Biden will travel to Camp Hale for the proclamation ceremonies.

The White House also announced plans to withdraw the Thompson Divide area in western Colorado from mineral leasing laws for 20 years. 

In a statement, the White House said the Camp Hale’s national monument designation honors the country’s veterans and Indigenous people – and their legacy – by protecting Camp Hale and supporting America’s outdoor recreation economy.

Located near Leadville, the 10th Mountain Division trained in Camp Hale for mountain and winter warfare during World War II. 

The White House said Camp Hale’s rugged landscape serves as a “testament to a pivotal moment in America’s military history.”

“These peaks and valleys forged the elite soldiers of the famed 10th Mountain Division –  the Army’s first and only mountain infantry division –  that helped liberate Europe in World War II,” said the Biden administration, which also noted that it lies within the ancestral homelands of the Ute Tribes and it is “treasured for its historical and spiritual significance, stunning geological features, abundant recreation opportunities, and rare wildlife and plants.” 

With the new designation, the U.S. Forest Service will manage the 53,804-acre national monument and develop a plan to protect its cultural, scientific and historical resources, the White House said. 

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

In designating Camp Hale as a national monument, Biden used 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.

The White House also announced that the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service jointly submitted a petition to withdraw the Thompson Divide from mineral leasing laws for two decades to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. 

Haaland’s acceptance of the petition initiates a two-year segregation, which pauses new mining claims and the issuance of new mineral leases on roughly 225,000 acres in the Thompson Divide area, the White House said. 

The White House said the Thompson Divide area has not been available to oil and gas leasing for years, and no current or planned oil exploration or production in the area exists. The White House said the proposed withdrawal does not affect preexisting natural gas leases. 

Colorado Politics editor Luige del Puerto and reporter Ernest Luning contributed to this report.