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Students, bands and vintage vehicles salute veterans in Cortez parade

Schoolchildren waving flags, two Montezuma-Cortez school bands and a line of vintage vehicles made their way through Cortez on Wednesday afternoon in Montezuma County's Veterans Day parade. Photos from along the route run through the story, with all seven in a picture archive at the end.

By Cortez Current Staff
Published:
A man in a cowboy hat waves from the seat of a red vintage tractor marked Co-op, with two small American flags and a sign reading Thank You Veterans on its side, spectators on the grass behind
Photo: Cortez CurrentA driver waves from a red Co-op tractor bearing a "Thank You Veterans" sign on Montezuma Avenue during Montezuma County's Veterans Day parade in Cortez on November 11.

Schoolchildren waving small American flags, two Montezuma-Cortez school bands and a string of vintage vehicles made their way through Cortez on Wednesday afternoon in Montezuma County’s Veterans Day parade.

The parade stepped off at 1 p.m. from West Montezuma Avenue and North Elm Street. The county’s notice for the event, which the Cortez Current reported in October, had it running along West Montezuma Avenue and North Elm and finishing at American Legion Post 75 on North Harrison Street.

The photos in this story were taken on Montezuma Avenue near Market Street, where spectators lined the curb and the grass in folding chairs under a cloudless sky, many holding small flags of their own.

Students from Battle Rock Charter School walked behind their school’s white banner, flags in hand. One student held up a framed photograph, and two small dogs rode along in students’ arms.

Children walking down a sunny street carrying a white banner that reads Battle Rock Charter School, many holding small American flags, with a long line of students and adults behind them and spectators on the grass to the left Photo: Cortez Current
Battle Rock Charter School students carry their school’s banner along Montezuma Avenue near Market Street.

Montezuma-Cortez High School’s entry was right behind them. Two students in calavera face paint, one wearing a ruffled red dress trimmed in rainbow ribbon, carried the school’s orange banner. The color guard followed, swinging purple and pink flags.

Two students in skull face paint, one in a ruffled red dress, carry an orange Montezuma-Cortez High School banner; behind them color guard members in black T-shirts wave purple and pink flags ahead of a marching band in white uniforms and tall yellow plumes Photo: Cortez Current
Montezuma-Cortez High School students in calavera face paint carry the school’s banner ahead of the color guard and marching band.

Then came the high school’s marching band, in white uniforms topped with tall gold-and-white plumes.

Rows of marching band members in white uniforms with gold-shaded jackets, silver helmets and tall yellow-and-white plumes march down the street past spectators in a park Photo: Cortez Current
The Montezuma-Cortez High School marching band on Montezuma Avenue.

The Montezuma-Cortez Middle School Panther Band marched behind its own black-and-orange banner, a long column of students in black shirts waving small flags, with a student out front carrying a full-size American flag.

A boy in a black shirt carries a large American flag on a pole ahead of middle school students holding a black-and-orange banner reading Montezuma-Cortez Middle School Panther Band, Cortez, Colorado Photo: Cortez Current
A student carries an American flag ahead of the Montezuma-Cortez Middle School Panther Band.

Among the vehicles, a camouflage-painted six-wheel military cargo truck carried “Freedom Isn’t Free” signs on its front bumper and its cargo rack, with riders up top.

A camouflage-painted six-wheel military cargo truck with amber roof lights and red, white and blue tinsel stars on its grille, a sign reading Freedom Isn’t Free on its bumper and another on its cargo rack, two people riding on top Photo: Cortez Current
A camouflage-painted military cargo truck carries “Freedom Isn’t Free” signs.

A light-blue Studebaker sedan flew an American flag and a red U.S. Marine Corps “Devil Dogs” flag from its front bumper.

A pale blue vintage Studebaker sedan with a chrome bullet nose, with an American flag and a red flag reading United States Marine Corps Devil Dogs, with a bulldog emblem, mounted on its front bumper Photo: Cortez Current
A light-blue Studebaker flies an American flag and a U.S. Marine Corps “Devil Dogs” flag.

And the driver of a bright red Co-op tractor, pictured at the top of this story, waved to the crowd from behind a sign reading “Thank You Veterans.”

How November 11 became a holiday

Veterans Day falls on November 11 because of the moment the fighting stopped in World War I. The armistice between the Allies and Germany, signed in a railway car in France early that morning, took effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month — 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918. It was a ceasefire, not the peace treaty; the Treaty of Versailles that formally ended the war with Germany was signed the following June.

President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day a year later, on November 11, 1919. Congress made the date a legal federal holiday in an act approved May 13, 1938, “dedicated to the cause of world peace” and known as Armistice Day. It chiefly honored the veterans of World War I.

After World War II and the Korean War, veterans service organizations pushed to widen it. Congress struck the word “Armistice” from the 1938 law and put “Veterans” in its place, and with President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s approval on June 1, 1954, November 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

The date has moved once. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 shifted Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October to give federal workers a three-day weekend, and the first Veterans Day under it fell on October 25, 1971. Many states kept observing November 11 anyway, and in 1975 President Gerald Ford signed a law returning the holiday to November 11 beginning in 1978. It has stayed there since, which is why this year’s parade fell on a Wednesday.

7 photos · tap a photo to enlarge
  1. Children walking down a sunny street carrying a white banner that reads Battle Rock Charter School, many holding small American flags, with a long line of students and adults behind them and spectators on the grass to the left
    Photo: Cortez CurrentBattle Rock Charter School students carry their school's banner along Montezuma Avenue near Market Street during Montezuma County's Veterans Day parade in Cortez on November 11.
  2. Two students in skull face paint, one in a ruffled red dress, carry an orange Montezuma-Cortez High School banner; behind them color guard members in black T-shirts wave purple and pink flags ahead of a marching band in white uniforms and tall yellow plumes
    Photo: Cortez CurrentMontezuma-Cortez High School students in calavera face paint carry the school's banner ahead of the color guard and marching band.
  3. Rows of marching band members in white uniforms with gold-shaded jackets, silver helmets and tall yellow-and-white plumes march down the street past spectators in a park
    Photo: Cortez CurrentThe Montezuma-Cortez High School marching band on Montezuma Avenue.
  4. A boy in a black shirt carries a large American flag on a pole ahead of middle school students holding a black-and-orange banner reading Montezuma-Cortez Middle School Panther Band, Cortez, Colorado
    Photo: Cortez CurrentA student carries an American flag ahead of the Montezuma-Cortez Middle School Panther Band.
  5. A camouflage-painted six-wheel military cargo truck with amber roof lights and red, white and blue tinsel stars on its grille, a sign reading Freedom Isn't Free on its bumper and another on its cargo rack, two people riding on top
    Photo: Cortez CurrentA camouflage-painted military cargo truck carries "Freedom Isn't Free" signs.
  6. A pale blue vintage Studebaker sedan with a chrome bullet nose, with an American flag and a red flag reading United States Marine Corps Devil Dogs, with a bulldog emblem, mounted on its front bumper
    Photo: Cortez CurrentA light-blue Studebaker flies an American flag and a U.S. Marine Corps "Devil Dogs" flag.
  7. A man in a cowboy hat waves from the seat of a red vintage tractor marked Co-op, with two small American flags and a sign reading Thank You Veterans on its side, spectators on the grass behind
    Photo: Cortez CurrentThe driver of a red Co-op tractor bearing a "Thank You Veterans" sign waves to spectators.
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