When climbers worked their way up airy Independence Monument and planted a flag on its 450-foot-high top on Saturday to mark the Fourth of July, they were following a tradition as old as the spire’s home, Colorado National Monument.
John Otto, whose advocacy and vision led to the monument’s establishment in 1911, that same year also was the first to climb Independence Monument. He flew Old Glory from its top on July 4, 1911.
Otto “was a very patriotic person,” said Arlene Jackson, the National Park Service’s chief of interpretation, education and community outreach at Colorado National Monument.
Names he gave to some of the national monument’s features, from Independence Monument itself to Liberty Cap, also reflect Otto’s patriotic bent.
His quest to get up Independence Monument didn’t involve climbing as the activity is generally practiced today.
“It was more like manufacturing a way to go up,” said Jose Iglesias, who was the leader of this year’s annual Fourth of July climb.
A picture taken of Otto and fellow climber Rae Kennedy just below the spire’s summit on June 8, 1911, helps illustrate his methods. They involved drilling holes and pounding in pieces of pipe to create a ladder.
Otto carried rope as well, which amused climbers of later generations.
“We kind of laughed about it; we thought the rope would make it easier to find the body when he fell off,” said Mesa resident Rick Smith, who is dubious that Otto’s rope was set up in a way to do him any good.
The pipes Otto installed later were removed, but he also carved handholds into the monument’s sandstone.
Said Jackson, “If you look at Independence Monument with the sun just right, you can see those last steps that he carved just before the top.”
Otto had particular reason to feel love of country on his July 4, 1911, climb. On May 24 of that year, President William Howard Taft signed the proclamation preserving as a national monument the red-rock landscape Otto so loved.
That spring and summer were particularly busy for Otto. He also found time on June 20, 1911, to marry Beatrice Farnham, a Boston artist. The marriage didn’t work out, with Otto’s new wife leaving after just a couple of weeks. She found it hard to adjust to his rustic lifestyle, according to a history of Otto on Colorado National Monument’s website.
“It was kind of rough for her living in a tent,” said Smith.
Otto and his wife differed in their preferred ways of life but apparently not in their love of country. Smith said Beatrice carved the first line of the Declaration of Independence into a rock at the base of Independence Monument, but it eroded away as people clambered on the rock in ensuing decades.
Smith, a retired firefighter known to many by his nickname, “Grumpy,” has more than a passing interest in John Otto.
Smith was part of a contingent of local climbers who ascended Independence Monument on May 24, 1991, and installed a flag. The others in the group were Bob Fischer, K.C. Baum and a fourth climber whose name escapes Smith.
Smith said Fischer was active at the national monument’s visitor center at the time, and came up with the idea of the May 24 climb to mark the monument’s 80th anniversary.
They decided to follow up weeks later with a Fourth of July flag-raising on Independence Monument, in the spirit of Otto.
Jackson’s understanding is that others likewise took their cue from Otto in earlier years in at least sporadically replicating the holiday tradition.
She said she wouldn’t be surprised if Otto himself made it an annual habit. But the 1991 climb kicked off a modern-day tradition that has been faithfully carried out now for 30 years.
Smith said others in his original group stopped going after a couple of years, but he forged on with getting the flag raised on top each July 4.
“Two years there I put it up by myself and had to take it down by myself,” Smith said.
Smith served in the war in Vietnam and thought the tradition was important to honor the nation.
“I’m a veteran and lost some friends in the wars and am a pretty patriotic individual and was just trying to keep what John Otto did, keep his legacy going,” he said.
Smith estimates he repeated the annual climb 15 or 16 years or more. About 25 years ago, Iglesias joined him.
Smith helped start Mesa County Search and Rescue’s technical rescue team, which Iglesias, who has a background as a mountain guide and is a county sheriff’s deputy, directs today.
The climb became a fundraiser for the search and rescue program, with experienced climbers helping others get up Independence Monument on July 4 in exchange for donations. Iglesias said the climb raises perhaps $1,000 a year for purposes such as equipment and training.
Said Jackson, “It’s a really nice way of continuing a tradition and ensuring that the history of this place lives on through the traditions.”
Iglesias feels as compelled as Smith did to keep the tradition going. He notes the community support behind the tradition, with observers cheering the climbers on from parking lot observation points.
“Some people ask me why I keep doing it. I feel I have to do it. If I don’t do it, people probably would kill me after all these years, if I didn’t raise the flag,” Iglesias said with a laugh.
Fortunately, the climb itself has proven less threatening over the years, though Iglesias remembers a scare from lightning one year before climbers got safely down.
He said most of the guest climbers who have gone up over the years have summited, although a few stopped short of a steep final pitch where Iglesias said climbers have more than 400 feet of air under their legs.
Iglesias said he’s climbed Independence Monument nearly 200 times and plans another climb in about a week to retrieve the newly placed flag.
But this year marked a first as he went up it with his son, Miguel, to install ropes in preparation for the July 4 group climb. Miguel, 18, has been climbing since age 3 but hadn’t previously ascended the monument.
Smith, reminiscing about his monument-climbing days in an interview Friday, confessed to entertaining thoughts of sneaking up Independence Monument early Saturday morning without telling Iglesias and camping out on top.
As soon as those words came out of his mouth, he conceded it was a highly unlikely scheme.
“My wife’s looking at me, shaking her head no,” said Smith.
She had friends coming into town over the weekend so the timing wasn’t right for Smith to engage in such an escapade.
Judging by the outcome of Otto’s marriage, such an obstacle wouldn’t likely have stopped him.
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