In 1928, Boulder-area civic groups built and dedicated two stone pillars at the intersection of Arapahoe Road and U.S. 287. The pillars served as a gateway to a section of Arapahoe Road that was intended to honor Boulder County veterans of World War I. Despite a lot of patriotic fanfare, the then-named “Road of Remembrance” received little recognition for nearly 100 years.
A few months ago, in March 2026, the Colorado General Assembly passed House Joint Resolution 26-1022 that finally, and formally, recognizes the “Road of Remembrance” as the section of Arapahoe Road from the pillars to the road’s intersection with Boulder’s 28th Street (U.S. 36).
With the logistics out of the way, a search is now underway to locate descendants of Boulder County’s 1,500 World War I veterans. To put faces on the past, join me in taking a trip back in time to reflect on the lives of brothers Carl and Clyde Cass.
The Tennessee-born brothers were sons of William A. and Callie Cass, who had moved their family to Boulder prior to 1915. William was a building contractor and active in labor unions.
Clyde Cass joined the U.S. Army on May 25, 1918, at age 24. His brother Carl, then 29, joined a month later. For the first few months, the brothers went through basic training at Camp Cody in New Mexico and then Camp Dix in New Jersey. Their deployment, however, was hard on the family, as letters sometimes took months to send and receive.
In October 1918, the Daily Camera published the news that both brothers were “safely on [the] soil of France.” When Germany signed the armistice with the Allied powers on Nov. 11, 1918, “the war to end all wars” was over. William and Callie Cass were overjoyed and expected their sons home any day.
Several letters from William to his sons were carefully preserved by C. F. Alan Cass (born in 1941 and son of their younger brother, Claude). On Nov. 24, 1918, William (signing as “Papa”) wrote to Carl, “We are so anxious to hear from you, and it would be the happiest time of our lives to see you boys come walking in at home.” He added that he expected both Carl and Clyde home by Christmas.
Describing the Armistice celebration in Boulder, William wrote, “The first whistle commenced blowing in Boulder at 4 o’clock in the morning, November the 11th. Mama jumped out of bed and commenced hollering and started the music box playing and had me shoot off the pistol, and we woke up the whole neighborhood.”
The atmosphere was not so jovial when Christmas came and went, and the sons had not returned. Still overseas, Clyde became a military police officer in France, and Carl spent two months as a patient in a hospital. Then Carl joined a motor transport unit and drove a truck in Germany.
After a letter finally came from Carl, he explained that it would be several months before either he or Clyde would be home. William wrote back that “Mama said if she could get ahold of the Old Kaiser [former Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia], she would wring his head off for the causing of keeping her boys over there.” He (William) then added, “She has been crying ever since.”
Carl finally came home in August 1919, and Clyde two months later. They are two of the veterans who served in WWI from Boulder County.
That same year, in 1919, the U.S. Congress chartered the American Legion. In Boulder, ten veterans started their own post. Mothers, wives, and sisters followed with an auxiliary in 1923. The Lions Club (another WWI era veterans group) erected the stone pillars in 1928. Plans were made to plant a row of trees (one for each veteran) all the way from the pillars to Boulder.
At the 1928 dedication, a pastor invoked a blessing, a band played some tunes, and the club’s president gave the history of the Lions Club. The president then formally presented the pillars to the American Legion which set up a flagpole and a German cannon, later damaged and now missing, on a triangular plot at the highways’ intersection.
Another speaker then extended the veterans’ tribute to include “the mothers and fathers who carried on the fight at home.” By then, the Cass family had moved to Florida, but there’s no doubt that that “Mama and Poppa’s” hopes and concerns had paralleled those of many other parents.
In recent years, several local community organizations began an effort to revive the Road of Remembrance and find descendants of Boulder County’s World War I veterans. The new dedication will be held on Sept. 15.
