General William Jackson Palmer

Some say General Palmer is a traffic hazard. But sitting atop his horse Diablo at the busy downtown intersection of Platte and Nevada Avenues is just where the General would want to be.

According to members of the General William Jackson Palmer Memorial Association, Palmer believed that intersection to be “where all peoples come together in Colorado Springs, from north, south, east, west.” The Association raised $33,000 to fund the memorial piece, including a $1,000 check from steel baron Andrew Carnegie. After commissioning artist Nathan Dumont Potter to work on the memorial, nearly 20 years passed before the bronze piece was installed in 1929.

A Civil War veteran and railroad man, Palmer founded the City of Colorado Springs in 1871. Palmer’s vision for the city he loved was quoted in the Colorado Springs Free Press in an article by Le Roy Ellinwood from 1955: “My theory for this place is that it should be made the most attractive place for homes in the West—a place for schools, colleges, literature, science, first class newspapers, and everything that the above imply. I would not lower the standard under the pressure of temporary poverty.”

Palmer died in 1909 as a result of a fall from his horse while riding on his estate, Glen Eyrie, near Garden of the Gods.