It's a particularly American phenomenon: hillside letters and mountain monograms that hover high over towns and campuses across the West. The big "M" above Golden was one of the first – a carefully tended pile of white rocks first proposed by a Colorado School of Mines senior thesis in 1908. There's a "D" in Del Norte. A "P" in Paonia. More than 20 letters like these dot the state. But during the Depression, folks in Palmer Lake thought up a different approach: to make a star out of light on a steep mountainside to the west.
For 3 months in 1935, locals hauled posts and strung wiring up the mountain, then flipped the switch on the Palmer Lake Star in time for the holidays. It's been shining every December since, looking down on the town and visible to anyone passing by on I-25 and Colorado Highway 105.
About Colorado Postcards
Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado.
