Castle Rock, Colorado

Colorado

A star built on the butte above Castle Rock went dark for the whole of the war, then came back as a V for victory.

historicalmilitaryroadside

Men working for the Works Progress Administration hauled the pieces up the castle-shaped butte in the middle of town and built an electric star on top. They lit it every year from 1936 to 1941. Then the war came, and the town left it dark on purpose, as a symbol of sacrifice. It stayed dark for years. On the fourteenth of August, 1945, just after V-J Day, crews rewired it into a V for victory. That December it burned as a star again for the holidays, and it has been lit every year since. These days it goes on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, forty-five feet of it, with fireworks downtown. It stays lit until the stock show ends in January. One year, with the Broncos in the Super Bowl, the town turned it orange and blue.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
After World War II began, the star was left unlit as a symbol of sacrifice in support of the war effort. On August 14, 1945, shortly after V-J Day, the star was modified into a V-for-victory symbol.

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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