This is the GUARDIAN  monument.  It is approximately twenty feet tall and has the logos of thirty-six agencies on it.  These agencies have the responsibility of placing themselves in danger for the good of the community.

    This monument is unique in that construction began in February of 2001, seven months before 9/11.  Each agency has a specific part in the protection of the civilian population and for that the City of Casper honors their service and dedication. 

    This monument contains the silhouette of Caspar Collins, who gave his life July 26, 1865 guarding the Oregon and California trail during the Indian Plains War.   He was the original Guardian for the area on which Casper, Wyoming, his name sake city, now occupies.  The name was misspelled due to the mistake in the telegram from Fort Laramie to Washington concerning the changing of the name of the fort to Fort Casper.  This citizens of Casper still prefer to call it, Fort Caspar. 

    Caspar attempted to rescue an Army supply train being threatened by hostile Indian forces.  On November 29, 1864, Colorado Volunteers attacked and massacred a peaceful Northern Cheyenne Tribe at Sand Creek Colorado.  The native tribes, angry at the cowardly act by the Colorado militia, the combined forces of Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapahoe and a addition of other tribes attempted to destroy the fort located on the Holy Road, that is Platte Bridge Station.

    It is called the Holy Road because the trail crossed the Platte River at that point and continued westward to South Pass.  South Pass, the only feasible route through the Rocky Mountain spine which is called the Continental Divide, was first discovered by fur trappers returning to St. Louis after following the dangerous and difficult route of Lewis and Clark.  These fur traders found that mountain men could easily traverse the Divide with wagons.  On their way back to civilization fur trappers  paused long enough to build a winter cabin just west of Casper at a place called Bessemer Bend.  But the threat of Indians forced them eastward.

    This trail qualifies the river crossing of the Platte River at Platte Bridge Station and South Pass as the most important real estate in the history of the United States.  For without either one of these two geological factors there would have never been a United States west of Iowa.  John C. Fremont could never have reached California before the Mexican War began and secured that area for the United States.  There would never have been a transcontinental migration by wagon or train to the Pacific Ocean and the history of the world would be very different than it is now.

    The native tribes understood how important Platte Bridge Station was to the white man’s migration.  That is the reason they traveled four hundred and sixty-three miles north of Sand Creek and attempted to stop the flow of immigrants.  The death of Caspar Collins emphasized the vulnerability of the trail and forced the War Department to strengthen the garrisons along the route.

The thirty-six agencies that have replaced Caspar as our guardian are the following:

United State Army Reserve                          The Wyoming National Guard

 

United States Marshal                                  United State Probation Officer

 

The USS Wyoming SSBN 742                      United States Postal Service

 

187^th ALFT Squadron                                    United State Forest Service

 

Wyoming Game and Fish                              Wyoming Livestock Board

 

Wyoming Highway Patrol                              Wyoming Medical Center

 

Natrona County Sheriff                                 Natrona County Fire Dept

 

Casper Police Dept.                                       Casper Fire Department

 

Metro Animal Control                                   911 Emergency Service

 

Ambulance Service                                        Life Flight Nurse

 

Life Flight Paramedic                                    Paramedic Service

 

The Casper Army Air Base WWII               Mills Fire & EMS Dept

 

Mills Police Dept.                                          Evansville Paramedic

 

Evansville Fire Department                          Wyoming Press Corps

 

Casper College Campus Security                 Public Health

 

Bar Nunn Fire Department                           Midwest Fire Department

 

Midwest-Edgerton Police Department         Bureau of Land Management

 

Veterans Administration                               State Department of Corrections

    This story of Caspar exemplifies the mission of these community agencies depicted on this monument THE GUARDIANS. Their job mission identifies the community protectors of the police, the highway patrol, the sheriff’s department, the firemen, and the medical personnel whose job it is to keep the public safe from harm.

    Then there are the others. Not so noticeable are the people of Public Health whose job it is evident in this era of biological weapons. Alternatively, the BLM, Game and Fish and the Forest Service who protect the flora and fauna of our state. Then there is the Postal Employees whose job has placed them in danger from terrorist mailings. In addition, of course the Metro Animal Control whose job it is to protect the community from rabid and wild animals or the Live Stock Board who protect our food supply.

    The United States Probation office and the Marshal’s office have become more prominent with the threat from illegal entry into the country. The military contingents, the Veterans Administration and the Wyoming Department of Corrections are of up most importance this day in which we may be engaged in armed conflict with an enemy whose terrorist capabilities are enormous. In addition is the Wyoming Press Corps whose job it is to report the news to the public even at the expense of their lives.  Ten news media personnel died in Afghanistan.   The Casper Air Base of World War II certainly had to be named to this list for so many of the men who fought and died in that war were trained here.   All of these agencies embody the Guardian spirit of Caspar Collins.  The monument is located on the Platte River, near the spot of the Platte Bridge Station crossing of the river, just east of Fort Caspar.

    Each person in these groups represented on the monument is FIRST RESPONDERS, or HOMELAND SECURITY as the popular nomenclature now calls for. That is why this monument is so special, so unique because it was planned before 9/11 to show appreciation before appreciation was popular for these groups.