It began small, as some wounds begin ー something like a scratch on Colorado Springs’ northern mountainside. But over 100 years the people below watched it fester, that scratch becoming a scar that would grow and grow along with a population that looked helplessly on, unable to stop the bleeding.   But now, finally, healing.  Colorado’s Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety has approved a years-long mission to restore nature at Pikeview Quarry, thus releasing the mine’s owning company from a permit dating to the 1970s. That’s when the company, now called Castle Aggregates, started mining limestone there at the site visible from Interstate 25 and beyond. Long before, since 1903, the quarry had been providing material to build much of the city as we know it today. Hence the complicated legacy of Pikeview Quarry, a glaring symbol of progress and blight. The recent move by the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety might symbolize a new legacy: one of renewal.  By releasing the permit and bond that was held for the job of reshaping and revegetating the slope over the past five years, the message from state regulators is clear: Mission accomplished. Reclamation achieved.  Bighorned sheep graze in the newly revegetated Pikeview Quarry in Colorado Springs on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (The Gazette, Michael G. Seamans) Castle Aggregates reports 3.4 million cubic yards of material excavated or hauled to backfill and sculpt a gentler slope spanning approximately 100 acres. The company has said nearly 32,000 trees and shrubs were planted and many bushels of seed were scattered. A special matting was spread across the quarry face to foster grass that is now waving, matching the neighboring hills.  The job was worthy of the Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety’s Jack Starner Memorial Reclamation Award. Said Russ Means, a program director with the division: “When you’re standing out there and you’re knee-deep in grass in what was a huge, visible detriment … Yeah, it was well deserved.” Just as Means’ team has monitored progress since the reclamation plan was approved in 2020, so has Gary Bradley.  “It’s a great day for Colorado Springs,” said the man who has waited about 40 years for such a day.  In the ’80s, he was among locals who rallied around an effort remembered as “the scar wars” between environmentalists and mine owners. Bradley and others rallied first around Queens Canyon Quarry, that scar looming over Garden of the Gods. They celebrated reclamation there in 2004. But overall, “we were not successful,” Bradley said.  Mining continued at Pikeview Quarry, that scar farther north that only worsened.  Until now, finally, from Bradley’s grateful view.  “I figured we’d end up with something, based on my experience at Queens,” he said. “I didn’t expect we would end up with a world-class repair on Pikeview.”  That’s because he knew the conditions at Pikeview were much different.  Jerald Schnabel, president and general manager of Castle Aggregates, was also there to oversee the job at Queens. And he also knew the job at Pikeview would be much different ー “with the fact that we had a wildly unstable slope,” he said.  Just as Pikeview Quarry’s legacy includes the construction of the Air Force Academy in the ‘50s and the broader city in decades before and after, it also includes alarming slides.  In 2008, 3 million tons of limestone came crashing down the mountain. Another 2 million tons came crashing down the next year. In 2013, another major slide was reported at the increasingly steep quarry. State regulators were all too aware of that history going into reclamation.  “It’s probably one of the top three most challenging geotechnical sites we’ve had in the state,” Means said.  The project’s bond rising near $18 million hinted at the challenge.  “We have a couple of other (quarries) that have been similar with stability issues like this, and the bonds are at this level or even higher,” Means said. “But this one by far was the most visible.”  That is what made Pikeview unprecedented, Means explained ー that visibility for generations of onlookers and the controversies that followed. Means said his team was “cautiously optimistic” about reclamation. “It was well thought out, and the technical aspects and stuff we felt were solid,” he said. “The political stuff, we weren’t so sure of.”  David Clemans plants a ponderosa pine as part of the 100-acre reclamation project at the site of the Pikeview Quarry on April 25, 2024, in northwestern Colorado Springs. Clemans, who lives next to the old quarry, came out of retirement to work on the project that he sees from his living room window. The quarry, a former limestone mine, operated from 1903 to 2018. (Christian Murdock, The Gazette file) Scars carved, lines drawn It was mining that propelled Richard Skorman into politics and the civic life he has lived, as he thinks back on it. He thinks back on the Colorado College student he was in the ’70s, the youngster who attended county commission meetings and spoke against a proposal to strip a broad swath of Ute Pass west of Manitou Springs.  That proposal failed, to young Skorman’s pleasant surprise.  “There was sort of this feeling that whatever the marketplace needed, we would do it,” he said. “We wouldn’t care what the long-term effects were.”  How else to explain Queens Canyon Quarry, that scar over Colorado Springs’ greatest natural treasure? And how else to explain the scar that kept growing farther north, in plain view for all to see along I-25?  A former city councilmember who also helped lead the creation of Colorado Springs’ sales tax fund for key preservation ー the Trails, Open Space and Parks program was established in 1997 ー Skorman was another local on the front lines of “the scar wars” in the ’80s. He remembers a visit from then-Gov. Roy Romer, who formed a Commission of Mountain Scarring in hopes of reclaiming large, visible quarries like Pikeview.  “I remember he came down here and said, ‘Boy, you should be ashamed, Colorado Springs. This is horrible,'” Skorman said. “And many of us agreed with him.”  Many pushed the mining company to action.  “But there was still mining happening” at Pikeview, Skorman said, “and it was the property right of Castle Concrete, and they were providing cheap gravel to the city.” That was until 2018, when the scaled-back mining in those years after the massive slides officially came to a halt. The company sought to move operations south, opening a new quarry off Colorado 115. But what the company opened was a new can of controversy.  The proposal at Hitch Rack Ranch met fierce opposition and lawsuit threats and ultimately was rejected by state regulators. Schnabel became the face of the battle; he was the local face of the company, with ownership living on the other side of the country.  “I was the loneliest guy in town,” Schnabel said of the time. “Our company was publicly just really bad-mouthed.”  The company had it coming, from Warren Dean’s view. He was one of the most outspoken critics at the time, perceiving businessmen who favored more profits and environmental ruin at Hitch Rack Ranch over Pikeview reclamation that he saw as long overdue.  “If they really cared, they’d have done something,” Dean said.  The fact that they hadn’t gave him utmost concern.  “There’s a list as long as your arm of mines where the mining company files for bankruptcy and they disappear,” he said.  That was the worry, that the company would leave Pikeview in the hands of the state and city. “And there’s no way (reclamation) would’ve happened,” Dean said.  Instead, company executives and city officials made a deal ー continuing the controversial saga.  Promises amid doubts Tense talks behind closed doors gave way to details that were publicly presented in a rosy way, with scenic renderings of a “world-class” bike park.  If all went accordingly, Pikeview Quarry could one day be home to that long-dreamed park, city leaders explained in 2020. That’s when other details came to light: The city would pay Castle Aggregates nearly $9 million for a package that included 148 acres below Pikeview, to be an expansion of Blodgett Open Space, and 193 acres encompassing Black Canyon Quarry on the city’s west side. The city would be in charge of reclaiming that smaller, flatter quarry, which has been considered as a future launch point for recreation around Waldo Canyon. The company, meanwhile, would take on reclamation at Pikeview and donate the quarry to the city ー if the city deemed the reclaimed land adequate for a possible bike park.  For the other land, the city paid 5% above appraised value. Some critics spoke against the city taking on costly Black Canyon Quarry reclamation in the place of the company. And, well aware of Pikeview’s unstable history, critics also spoke of the potential bike park as a fool’s errand. Sitting on the City Council at the time, Skorman understood the criticism.  “I was somebody who supported it, because I didn’t see another option,” he said. “If we hadn’t spent what we spent for that land below Pikeview and taken over Black Canyon, I’m not sure (the company) would’ve stayed in existence. There was a lot of worry they would’ve declared bankruptcy and washed their hands of the whole thing.”  The state’s Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety would spend the following months and years measuring stability and revegetation. Another measurement was taken ahead of reclamation: some mix of public distrust and doubt.  The job would be “under a microscope,” Schnabel said. “And I’ll say this: It was good for the project.” Said Hunter Kragenbrink, the division’s environmental protections specialist who made monthly inspections at Pikeview. “We knew this was a contentious site, so we always wanted to make sure our I’s were dotted and our T’s were crossed.” Monthly visits are not common at other reclamation sites, said Means, the program director. “We don’t usually do that kind of oversight,” he said. “But we were acutely aware of some of the issues that could’ve developed if we weren’t out there.”  Issues developed early on. The company changed contractors as “we started to have some safety concerns,” Schnabel said, including “a few minor incidents.” And there were concerns about early seeding attempts ー vegetation not taking to the slope.  Did everything go accordingly? “No,” Means said. “But nothing ever goes according to plan perfectly in a project of this size and scale. We did have those challenges bubble up, and we were able to work our way through them.”  Often alongside representatives from the city and U.S. Forest Service, the monthly visits started with a review of data showing any movement on the mountain, Kragenbrink explained. Charts were produced from a theodolite system that was installed across the quarry ー a system of laser prisms that measured horizontal and vertical angles.  After reshaping and backfilling, the lasers detected “very tiny, subtle, expected movements,” Kragenbrink said. “As you start to place topsoil, that’s just construction movement; when you see that on your graph, you know those prisms are working accurately,” she said. “But over time, as the topsoil is placed and the vegetation grows, things stabilize.”  Indeed they did, Kragenbrink said: “Ultimately, the fact those graphs evened out as expected and stayed that way gave the division assurance that the site was stable.” And grass was growing tall ー thanks to machinery that drilled seeds, matting that was hand-stapled across the 100 acres and last spring’s generous rains. Rocky outcropping was left as habitat for the bighorn sheep that frequent the quarry, Kragenbrink said. She said she noticed the sheep being joined by more mammals, birds and bugs.  “Those are other general signs that the vegetation is not only stable and growing, but attracting exactly what we want with that wildlife,” she said.  Skorman has looked on from afar, pleased. “It’s something where you hope the promises that were made were kept,” he said, “and it really seems like it.”  A crew from Timberline Trail Craft works on mountain bike trails in open space beneath the newly renovated Pikeview Quarry in Colorado Springs on Jan, 14, 2026. (The Gazette, Michael G. Seamans) ‘A lot of work still’ Having represented the city on site visits over the years, David Deitemeyer counts himself impressed.  “The level of detail and the attention to detail has really come to the surface,” said the senior administrator for the city’s Trails, Open Space and Parks program.  The details will be analyzed by a recently hired third-party engineer. Deitemeyer said that analysis will determine whether or not the mayor and City Council decide on adopting Pikeview. That would be the next step toward the envisioned “world-class” bike park, with steps after that including a public scoping process and master plan.  “We’ve got a lot of work still,” Deitemeyer said, “but we’re closer than we’ve ever been.”  Cory Sutela hopes so, as someone who has been “wildly excited” about the bike park prospect for more than a decade. But he has questions.  “What do you do if you find out it’s not stable enough for a bike park?” said the executive director of advocacy group Medicine Wheel. “That’s my primary concern. I want people to get injured at the bike park because they crashed their bike, not because the bike park fell on them.”  Another concern of his: the city hiring a third-party expert now. “I would’ve wanted to have a very experienced geotechnical engineer looking at data over the last year and a half or so,” Sutela said.  He added: “I don’t imagine anything nefarious. But if it was me and I had a multimillion-dollar facility being donated to me, I’d like to have an expert going along with this to make sure that it’s safe.” Especially, he said, “before I lost any leverage to delay the permit approval and that bond refund.”  The Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety released the permit and bond after receiving no objections during a 30-day period, Means said.  He said specialists had an eye for a potential bike park as they went along with reclamation. Recreation was listed as the “post-mining land use,” as required in reclamation plans.  Indeed, Pikeview would be far from Colorado’s first quarry-turned-recreation site. But one this steep? “That’s definitely something unique for this one,” Means said.  Sutela’s primary concern has been shared by the company man who oversaw the job.  “I’m convinced it’s stable and safe,” Schnabel said. Still, he said: “My fear has been, ‘What if we do the reclamation and the bike park doesn’t go through?’ Then we look like a bait-and-switch company that promised this big amenity to the city and it didn’t happen.”  His job is done, but he sounds aware of a reputation that’s hard to shake ー for the company, its ownership across the country and also for himself, reflecting on controversies along the way. “I felt like everybody hated me,” he said. “But then there’s also a part of me that said, ‘You know what, the industry did it to ourselves.'” Starting in 1903, people watched that scar grow and grow on Colorado Springs’ northern mountainside, and maybe they harbored scorn for the people responsible. Those were people of the past century preceding Schnabel, who started at the quarry around the turn of this century.  “As I think back on it, reclamation should go hand in hand; you reclaim as you mine. You don’t leave big scars like this,” Schnabel said. “That’s unfortunately the history of mining that my generation has to change.”  He likes to think reclamation at Pikeview symbolizes that change, against steep odds.  “It really does set a new pinnacle for the state that reclamation can be done,” he said, “and furthermore should be done.” What’s next? It might be another question of trust, a question sure to be weighed by Mayor Yemi Mobolade. He was at the quarry one day back in 2024, a day for planting some of the first trees and shrubs of reclamation. At one point, Schnabel turned to the mayor and looked him in the eye.  “I’m assuring you that you’re not buying a potential slide,” Schnabel said. ...read more read less