Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site

In 2003, the U.S. Army announced a plan to expand PCMS by purchasing additional land mostly owned by individuals devoted to ranching.

A branch of the Santa Fe Trail runs near PCMS and ancient Indian rock art and petroglyphs are common in the rocky canyons.

"[5] In 1991, the Army transferred 16,000 acres (65 km2) of land in the Purgatoire River Canyon to the Comanche National Grassland for preservation and recreation.

A civilian worker at PCMS said the “land condition is neither better nor worse, just different…we’ve traded cattle trails for tank trails and Humvee trails.”[7] In 2003, the Army identified a need to expand PCMS by acquiring 6.9 million acres (27,923 km2) of land owned by private citizens and the Comanche National Grassland in southeastern Colorado.

[8] The proposed expansion would make PCMS three times larger than any other military base in the United States—larger in area than the states of Maryland and Massachusetts.

A 2005 report said that the acquisition would “benefit from an extremely pro-military climate in Southeast Colorado that is more amenable to accepting expansion as part of the Global War on terrorism than some other areas of the country.”[10] That assertion proved to be less than prophetic.

They characterized the proposed expansion as “one colossal land grab.” The impetus for these organizations came from ranchers and local citizens in the region who wished to preserve private property and the traditional ranching economy.

[14] The opposition groups succeeded in obtaining support from Colorado politicians and communities and annual congressional bans on funding the PCMS expansion from 2007 through 2010.

However, in November 2010, the Air Force announced a plan to create a low-altitude training range that would include most of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.

To the opponents of the PCMS expansion, this appeared to be an attack from a "different angle" with the Air Force joining the Army in attempting “to militarize the land and air of Southern Colorado.”[15] The Army proposed in December 2010 that local governments in the region sign a "community covenant" to build better relations and to ensure that local communities receive more economic benefits as a result of the presence of PCMS.

The opposition organizations opposed signing the "covenant," proposing instead that the first step in improving relations was for the Army to cancel plans to expand PCMS and to cease citing the service of soldiers "as an instrument of economic development.