The American flag that flew over Scott Hente’s home is a red, white and blue reminder of the Waldo Canyon fire that damaged his house and destroyed hundreds of others in his Mountain Shadows neighborhood last summer.

Hente intended to keep the faded but undamaged flag in his family — a personal memento from a historic catastrophe.

“But the more I thought about it, I realized that the fire didn’t affect just us, but the community,” Hente said.

On Tuesday, in one of his final acts as president of Colorado Springs City Council, Hente turned the flag over to the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, which will use it in an upcoming “From the Ashes” exhibit and keep it in its permanent collection.

Hente also gave the museum a weatherworn “no trespassing” sign that had been erected years ago in a rarely successful attempt to keep people off the Manitou Incline. Hente asked the owners of the Pikes Peak Cog Railway if he could take the sign for the sake of history once hiking on the incline became legal in February.

“I didn’t want someone to grab it as a personal memento,” Hente said.

Museum director Matt Mayberry was grateful for the donations.

“These are very iconic, very unique,” he said.

The “no trespassing” sign is a particularly compelling artifact that speaks to the lure of the incline and people’s willingness to break the law for the sake of a challenge.

“The incline has been such a part of our community for decades,” Mayberry said. “This is so representative of that element of our community and that period where the community worked so hard to make it legal.”

Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum Director Matt Mayberry poses Wednesday, April 10, 2013 with items donated to the museum by Scott Hente on Tuesday. Included in Hente’s donation were a sign from the Manitou Incline and a flag from Hente’s home that survived the Waldo Canyon Fire. Photo by MARK REIS/The Gazette