Fort collins weather3/19/2023 ![]() Management of city growth patterns became a political priority during the 1980s, as well as the revitalization of Fort Collins' Old Town with the creation of a Downtown Development Authority. ĭuring the late 20th century, Fort Collins expanded rapidly to the south, adding new development, including several regional malls. During that same period, civil rights activism and anti-war disturbances heightened tensions in the city, including the burning of several buildings on the CSU campus. Similarly, Colorado State University's enrollment doubled during the 1960s, making it the city's primary economic force by the end of the century.įort Collins gained a reputation as a very conservative city in the twentieth century, with a prohibition of alcoholic beverages, a contentious political issue in the town's early decades, being retained from the late 1890s until student activism helped bring it to an end in 1969. Along with revitalization came many changes, including the closing of the Great Western sugar factory in 1955, and a new city charter, adopting a council-manager form of government in 1954. Old buildings were razed to make way for new, modern structures. During the decade following World War II, the population doubled and an era of economic prosperity occurred. Īlthough the city was affected by the Great Depression and simultaneous drought, it nevertheless experienced slow and steady growth throughout the early part of the twentieth century. In 1901 the Great Western sugar processing plant was built in the neighboring city of Loveland. Beet tops, an industry supported by the college and its associated agricultural experiment station, proved to be an excellent and abundant food for local sheep, and by the early 1900s the area was being referred to as the "Lamb feeding capital of the world". Stone quarrying, sugar-beet farming, and the slaughter of sheep were among the area's earliest industries. The 1880s saw the construction of a number of elegant homes and commercial buildings and the growth of a distinctive identity for Fort Collins. Although the Colorado Agricultural College was founded in 1870, the first classes were held in 1879. Tension between new settlers and earlier inhabitants led to political divisions in the new town, which was incorporated in 1873. Hundreds of settlers arrived, developing lots just south of the original Old Town. The city's first population boom came in 1872, with the establishment of an agricultural colony. The civilian population of Fort Collins, led by local businessman Joseph Mason, led an effort to relocate the county seat to Fort Collins from LaPorte, and they were successful in 1868. ![]() The first school and church opened in 1866, and the town was platted in 1867. The original fort site is now adjacent to the present historic "Old Town" portion of the city. Settlers began arriving in the vicinity of the fort nearly immediately. Poudre Valley Bank, at Linden and Walnut, in Fort Collins (1908) The post was manned originally by two companies of the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and never had walls. Collins, suggesting that a site several miles farther down the river would make a good location for the fort. Afterward, the commander of the fort wrote to the commandant of Fort Laramie in southeast Wyoming, Colonel William O. Travelers crossing the county on the Overland Trail would camp there, but a flood destroyed the camp in June 1864. Camp Collins was erected during the Indian wars of the mid-1860s to protect the Overland mail route that had been recently relocated through the region. It succeeded a previous encampment, known as Camp Collins, on the Cache la Poudre River, near what is known today as Laporte. įort Collins was founded as a military outpost of the United States Army in 1864. He made friends of white settlers who moved into the area, but was pushed out of Colorado in the 1860s. Louis, Missouri in his youth, was a leader of the band of Arapahos as well as an interpreter, negotiator, and peacemaker. Northern Arapaho were centered in the Cache la Poudre River Valley near present-day Fort Collins. 4.1 Major industries and commercial activity.
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