4.7 Inch Gun M1906, City Park - Fort Collins, CO
Posted by: Outspoken1
N 40° 35.086 W 105° 06.254
13T E 491179 N 4492669
This gun is found in the playground, though the playground was not originally by the gun!
Waymark Code: WMHF3W
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 07/03/2013
Views: 8
The plate reads:
No. 1479
4.7 Inch Gun Carriage
Rock Island Arsenal
1918
"The design was orthodox for its time with a box trail and hydro spring recoil system. When the United States entered World War I 60 had been produced and issued to the army. Once the US entered WWI the US Army came under pressure to adopt French artillery systems and the 4.7in Field Gun was rechambered to fire French 120mm ammunition. The switch to French 120mm ammunition eased logistical problems due to the availability of French ammunition. However the decision to change ammunition upset production and only 16 new pieces were finished before the end of the war.
Ammunition included a base-fuzed common steel shell containing 3.36 pounds (1.52 kg) of TNT, and a shrapnel shell containing 711 230-grain (15 g) balls with a 31-second combination fuze and optional tracer." (from (
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"You know, Fort Collins didn’t just plop a cannon in the middle of the playground at City Park. It was the other way around. The playground was west of there, and migrated to the cannon.
In a way, it didn’t matter because kids in the 1950s climbed all over the cannon and considered it an extension of the playground, Norm says.
In another way, it mattered very much because over the years many residents thought it inappropriate to keep the artillery where the children play.
The story of how the cannon came to City Park, and how hawks and doves resolved their differences, is interesting. But it’s too long for me to tell now.
But that’s not the most interesting thing about the cannon to me anyway. I think the most interesting thing is the kids’ initials carved in the hard rubber wheels. Norm says he remembers kids carving those glyphs going back to when he was a kid in the 1940s." from (
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