Legion Park
At Legion Park, you can enjoy a good view of the Flatirons and the
Continental Divide. It is a small, 28 acre mesa covered with plains
scrubland that overlooks the Hillcrest, Leggett- Owen and Valmont
reservoirs. These reservoirs do not freeze in the winter so provide
fishing for ospreys and eagles and great opportunities for raptor
watching. A short hike on the 1-mile trail
allows a view of the resident prairie dogs, which are also a
source of food for raptors, fox, coyotes, and other quick carnivores.
The trail at Legion Park is multiuse and can be accessed from
Arapahoe Road in Boulder.
History
Known at one time as Goodview Hill, the Legion Park served as a lookout
point for local Native Americans (the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and
Comanche), as well as, early Anglo settlers. During the early 1900s, it
was a working ranch owned by John Empson, a well-known business man who
pioneered the development of the northern Colorado canning industry. Mr.
Empson deeded it to Boulder County
in 1917.
 In
1932, the Boulder County Commissioners entered into a 99-year lease with
trustees of American Legion Post No. 10 to develop it as a memorial to the
soldiers of World War I. During the next few years, the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) landscaped the park with ponderosa pines and
yucca and constructed a stone wall with two WWI cannons. The cannon was
last fired in 1933 at the park dedication ceremony and became formally
known at Legion Park.
In 1976, Boulder County Parks and Open Space entered into an agreement
with the American Legion to manage Legion Park. It is listed as an
historical site on the Boulder County historical site survey. The American
Legion removed the wheeled mortar in 1976 and the cannon in 2005.
 Legion
Park Trail is a one-mile loop and is open to hikers, mountain
bikers and equestrians.
Dogs
are also permitted on this trail.
Legion Park is located east of Boulder on Arapahoe Road, ½ mile west
of 75th Street.
Legion
Park Map: Because all of our open space properties are environmentally sensitive,
it is important for users to know the rules
and regulations pertaining to
our open space. Once the map is displayed, you can use the adobe toolbar to fit the map
to your window, pan, zoom in or out, search or print the map on your own
printer. The size of the original map and screen reduction are shown on
the lower left hand status bar.
The Legion Park trail map is 90 KB and will require Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free from
Adobe. Map may not appear properly in your web browser, for best results, save
map file to a directory on your computer (right click and choose
"Save Target as" in Internet explorer or "Save Link
as" in Netscape) and open using Adobe Reader.
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