Editor’s Note: This column about local history appears in Sunday’s print editions of The Gazette, on the “Who We Are” page. Send questions to dave.philipps@gazettedev.gazette.com; 636-0238.

Question: Who built the statue of you on horseback at the downtown intersection of Platte and Nevada avenues?

Good question. Motorists complain about having to drive around the statue of me on my trusty horse, Diablo, but few know why it is there.

When I was a young man in Philadelphia in the 1850s, I took a job as an engineer with the Pennsylvania Railroad. (Did you know that I was the first person to recommend that American trains burn coal instead of wood? We were quickly burning through our forests, and I didn’t want to see that happen. But that’s another story.)

While working on the railroad I met a clever young Scotsman my age named Andrew Carnegie and we became good friends.

The Civil War sent Andrew and me in different directions but we remained close.

We shared a number interests over the years. Like me, Andrew thought the colonial ambitions of the United States in the 1890s were a mockery of the democratic values our nation was founded on.

Did you know that after the Spanish American War in 1898 the United States tried to annex the Philippines? Horrendous!

Andrew and I joined the Anti-Imperialist League and fought such nonsense. And we won.

When it came time to build Colorado Springs’ lovely downtown library, I donated the land and Andrew gave $60,000 to build the library.

But about the statue of Diablo and me… When I died in 1909 (of complications from being thrown off said horse), my friends took up a collection for a memorial. That’s the statue you drive around. Andrew gave $1,000 – more than anyone else.

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As told by staff writer Dave Philipps in Gen. Palmer’s voice.