Embedded Files
A class project during the 2011-12 school year became a collaborative learning project to rehabilitate and preserve a monument placed in 1899.
Train engineer Billy Westall slowed a train in danger of derailing, saving nearly 450 passengers at the expense of his own life in 1898. A monument honoring this heroic act was placed a year later, overlooking the North Fork of the South Platte River. The river undercut the ground below the monument over the years, leading it to be nominated for the 2012 Colorado’s Most Endangered Places List.
A team of West Jeff Middle students, advised by English teacher Frank Reetz, formed a partnership with Colorado Preservation, Inc., Denver Water, and the Anschutz Foundation to preserve the monument. Over the next two years, the group surveyed the site, cleaned up weeds and debris, and raised funds to have the monument moved to a more stable location along with replacing a plaque about the event. The monument was moved on December 9, 2013, and rededicated on April 18, 2014.
Media:
Media:
Interactive timeline: Preserving the Westall Monument, made with TimelineJS.
Articles:
Articles:
"Jeffco's Westall Monument highlighted", 22 Mar 2016 article in the Denver Post's YourHub supplement
"West Jefferson Middle School students play a part in saving history", 16 May 2014 article in the Denver Post's YourHub supplement
"Jeffco Students Champion Westall Monument", Historically Jeffco 2014, pp. 34-37.
"Students protect train-wreck hero monument", 11 Dec 2013 post on Denver Water blog
"West Jefferson Middle School Students Learn About Historic Preservation via the Westall Monument", 8 Nov 2012 post on Colorado Preservation
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