Larimer County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359,066. The

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

and most populous city is

Fort Collins A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

. The county was named for William Larimer, Jr., the founder of

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Larimer County comprises the Fort Collins, CO

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...

. The county is located at the northern end of the

Front Range The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered ...

, at the edge of the

Colorado Eastern Plains The Eastern Plains of Colorado refers to a region of the U.S. state of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and east of the population centers of the Front Range. Geography The Eastern Plains are part of the High Plains, which are the western ...

along the border with

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

History

Larimer County was created in 1861, and was named after General

William Larimer William Larimer Jr. (October 24, 1809 – May 16, 1875) was a Kansas state senator, American settler, and land developer who is best known as the founder of Denver, Colorado, in 1858. Larimer often went by "General Larimer", having acquired the ...

. Unlike that of much of Colorado, which was founded on the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

, the settlement of Larimer County was based almost entirely on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

, an industry that few thought possible in the region during the initial days of the

Colorado Gold Rush The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 ...

. The mining boom almost entirely passed the county by. It would take the introduction of

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

to the region in the 1860s to bring the first widespread settlement to the area.

Early history

At the time of the arrival of Europeans in the early 19th century, the present-day county was occupied by Native Americans, with the Utes occupying the mountainous areas and the

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

and

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

living on the

piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

areas along the base of the foothills. French

fur trappers The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most ...

infiltrated the area in the early decades of the 19th century, soon after the area became part of the United States with the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...

and was organized as part of the

Missouri Territory The Territory of Missouri was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 4, 1812, until August 10, 1821. In 1819, the Territory of Arkansas was created from a portion of its southern area. In 1821, a southea ...

. In 1828 William H. Ashley ascended the

Cache la Poudre River The Cache la Poudre River ( ), also known as the Poudre River, is a river in the state of Colorado in the United States. Name The name of the river () is a corruption of the original Cache à la Poudre, or "cache of powder". It refers to an ...

on his way to the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

in present-day

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. The river itself received its name in the middle 1830s from an obscure incident in which French-speaking trappers hid

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

along its banks, somewhere near present-day Laporte or Bellvue. In 1848 a group of

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

crossed through the county following the North Fork of the Poudre to the Laramie Plains on their way to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

along a route that became known as the

Cherokee Trail The Cherokee Trail was a historic overland trail through the present-day U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming that was used from the late 1840s up through the early 1890s. The route was established in 1849 by a wagon train he ...

. The area of county was officially opened to white settlement following negotiations with the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the 1858 Treaty of Fort Laramie, by which time the area was part of the

Nebraska Territory The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebrask ...

. The first U.S. settlers arrived that same year in a party led by Antoine Janis from

Fort Laramie Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading-post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined ...

. Janis, who had visited the area near Bellvue in 1844 and proclaimed it "the most beautiful place on earth", returned to file his official claim and helped found the first U.S. settlement in present-day Colorado, called Colona, just west of Laporte. Nearly simultaneously, Mariano Medina established Fort Namaqua along the

Big Thompson River The Big Thompson River is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 78 miles (123 km) long, in the U.S. state of Colorado. Originating in Forest Canyon in Rocky Mountain National Park, the river flows into Lake Estes in the town ...

just west of present-day Loveland. The first irrigation canals were established along the Poudre in the 1860s. In 1862 the settlement established by Janis became a stagecoach stop along the Overland Stage Route which was established because of threats of attacks from Native Americans on the northern trails in Wyoming. In 1861, Laporte was designated as the first county seat after the organization of the

Colorado Territory The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado. The territory was organized in the ...

. In 1862, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

established an outpost near Laporte that was designated as Camp Collins. A devastating flood in June 1864 wiped out the outpost, forcing the Army to seek a better location. At the urging of Joseph Mason, who had settled along the Poudre in 1860, the Army relocated its post downstream adjacent to Mason's land along the Overland stage route. The site of the new post became the nucleus of the town of

, incorporated in 1873 after the withdrawal of the Army. By that time, Mason and others had convinced the Colorado Territorial Legislature to designate the new town as the county seat. In 1870, the legislature designated Fort Collins as the location of the state agricultural college (later Colorado State University), although the institution would exist only on paper for another 9 years while local residents sought money to construct the first campus buildings. In 1873, Robert A. Cameron and other members of the Greeley Colony established the Fort Collins Agricultural Colony, which greatly expanded the grid plan and population of Fort Collins.

Railroads

One of the primary goals of the early citizens of the county was the courting of

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s. County residents were disappointed when the

Denver Pacific Railroad The Denver Pacific Railway was a historic railroad that operated in the western United States during the late 19th century. Formed in 1867 in the Colorado Territory, the company operated lines in Colorado and present-day southeastern Wyoming in t ...

bypassed the county in 1870 in favor of Greeley. The first railroad finally arrived in the county in 1877 when the

Colorado Central Railroad The Colorado Central Railroad was a U.S. railroad company that operated in Colorado and southeastern Wyoming in the late 19th century. It was founded in the Colorado Territory in the wake of the Colorado Gold Rush to ship gold from the mountain ...

extended a line north from

Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall * Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershi ...

via

Longmont The City of Longmont is a home rule municipality located in Boulder and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder and north-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. Longmont' ...

. The town council of Fort Collins designated

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

through the center of town (and through the campus of the unbuilt college) for the line, creating a contentious issue to this day. Along the new railroad sprung up the new

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ted towns of Loveland and Berthoud, named respectively after the William A.H. Loveland, president and Edward L. Berthoud, chief surveyor of the Colorado Central. Likewise, Wellington, Colorado, Wellington (founded in 1903) was named for a railroad employee. The Greeley, Salt Lake, and Pacific Railroad arrived three years later as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad, with the intention of creating a transcontinental line over Cameron Pass (Colorado), Cameron Pass. Although the line was never extended over the mountains, it opened up the quarrying of stone for the railroad at Stout, Colorado, Stout, furnishing another industry for the region. The brief attempt at the mining of gold in the region centered at the now ghost town of Manhattan, Colorado, Manhattan in the Poudre Canyon.

Agriculture

The early growth of agriculture, which depended highly on direct river irrigation, experienced a second boom in 1902 with the introduction of the cultivation of sugar beets, accompanied by the construction of the large processing plant of the Great Western Sugar, Great Western Sugar Co. in Loveland. In the following decade, the sugar beet industry brought large numbers of History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union, German emigrants from the Russian Empire to the county. The neighborhoods of Fort Collins northeast of the Poudre were constructed largely to house these new families. A significant increase in the agricultural productivity of the region came in the 1930s with the construction of the Colorado Big Thompson Project following the Great Depression, sort of a third boom for the agricultural industry around Fort Collins. This project collected and captured Colorado Western Slope, Western Slope water, and carried it over to the

counties of Boulder County, Colorado, Boulder, Larimer, and Weld County, Colorado, Weld, along with extensive water storage and distribution system, which significantly extended the irrigable growing season and brought substantial additional land under irrigation for the first time.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.4%) is water.

Adjacent counties

* Laramie County, Wyoming—northeast * Weld County, Colorado, Weld County—east * Boulder County, Colorado, Boulder County—south * Grand County, Colorado, Grand County—southwest * Jackson County, Colorado, Jackson County—west * Albany County, Wyoming—northwest

Major highways

Interstate 25 (Colorado), Interstate 25 * US 34

U.S. Highway 34 (Colorado), U.S. Highway 34 * US 36

U.S. Highway 36 (Colorado), U.S. Highway 36 * US 87

U.S. Highway 87 (Colorado), U.S. Highway 87 * US 287

U.S. Highway 287 (Colorado), U.S. Highway 287 * Colorado 1

Colorado State Highway 1, State Highway 1 * Colorado 7

Colorado State Highway 7, State Highway 7 * Colorado 14

Colorado State Highway 14, State Highway 14 * Colorado 56

Colorado State Highway 56, State Highway 56 * Colorado 60

Colorado State Highway 60, State Highway 60 * Colorado 66

Colorado State Highway 66, State Highway 66 * Colorado 392

Colorado State Highway 392, State Highway 392 * Colorado 402

Colorado State Highway 402, State Highway 402

National protected areas

* Cache La Poudre Wilderness * Comanche Peak Wilderness * Neota Wilderness * Rawah Wilderness * Rocky Mountain National Park * Roosevelt National Forest

State protected areas

* Boyd Lake State Park * Lory State Park

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 251,494 people, 97,164 households, and 63,156 families residing in the county. The population density was 97 people per square mile (37/km²). There were 105,392 housing units at an average density of 40 per square mile (16/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 91.44% Race (United States Census), White, 0.66% Race (United States Census), Black or Race (United States Census), African American, 0.66% Race (United States Census), Native American, 1.56% Race (United States Census), Asian, 0.08% Race (United States Census), Pacific Islander, 3.41% from Race (United States Census), other races, and 2.19% from two or more races. 8.27% of the population were Race (United States Census), Hispanic or Race (United States Census), Latino of any race. There were 97,164 households, out of which 31.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.60% were Marriage, married couples living together, 7.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.00% were non-families. Of all households 23.40% were made up of individuals, and 6.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 2.99. In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.80% under the age of 18, 14.20% from 18 to 24, 30.70% from 25 to 44, 21.80% from 45 to 64, and 9.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 99.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.20 males. The median income for a household in the county was $48,655, and the median income for a family was $58,866. Males had a median income of $40,829 versus $27,859 for females. The per capita income for the county was $23,689. About 4.30% of families and 9.20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.80% of those under age 18 and 4.40% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Cities

* Loveland

Towns

* Berthoud (partially in Larimer and partially in Weld county) * Estes Park, Colorado, Estes Park * Johnstown, Colorado, Johnstown (partially in Larimer and partially in Weld county) * Timnath, Colorado, Timnath * Wellington, Colorado, Wellington * Windsor, Colorado, Windsor (partially in Larimer and partially in Weld County)

Census-designated places

* Laporte, Colorado, LaPorte * Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, Red Feather Lakes

Unincorporated communities

* Bellvue * Buckeye, Colorado, Buckeye * Campion, Colorado, Campion * Cherokee Park, Colorado, Cherokee Park * Drake, Colorado, Drake * Glendevey, Colorado, Glendevey * Glen Haven, Colorado, Glen Haven * Livermore, Colorado, Livermore * Kinikinik, Colorado, Kinikinik * Masonville, Colorado, Masonville * Norfolk, Colorado, Norfolk * Pinewood Springs, Colorado, Pinewood Springs * Pingree Park, Colorado, Pingree Park * Poudre Park, Colorado, Poudre Park * Rustic, Colorado, Rustic * Waverly, Colorado, Waverly

Ghost towns

* Manhattan, Colorado, Manhattan * Old Roach, Colorado, Old Roach * Virginia Dale, Colorado, Virginia Dale

Politics

Larimer was long a Republican stronghold. Between 1920 and 2004, the only Democratic presidential candidate to win a majority of votes in the county was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. However, increasing urbanization, as well as the influence of Colorado State University, caused the Republican margins to decline steadily in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democrat to carry the county with the majority of the vote since 1964, and in so doing recorded the best performance by a Democrat since the days of Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan. In 2020, Joe Biden's margin of victory was even greater. Larimer County is a List of election bellwether counties in the United States, bellwether county; as of the 2020 US presidential election in Colorado, 2020 election, it has voted for the statewide winner in every election since 1948 US presidential election in Colorado, 1948, when Harry Truman carried Colorado without it.

Education

* Park R3 (Estes Park, Colorado, Estes Park)Park R3
/ref> * Poudre School District, Poudre R1 (

& Surrounding Area) * Thompson R2-J School District, Thompson R2-J ( Berthoud & Loveland) Fort Collins is home to Colorado State University.

Recreation

Prehistoric site

*Lindenmeier Site

National trails

*Continental Divide National Scenic Trail *Greyrock Mountain National Recreation Trail *Mount McConnel National Recreation Trail *Round Mountain National Recreation Trail

Bicycle route

*Great Parks Bicycle Route *Poudre River Trail *Spring Creek Trail *Mason Trail *Fossil Creek Trail *Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area *Power Trail *Loveland's Recreation Trail

Scenic byways

*Cache La Poudre-North Park Scenic and Historic Byway *Peak to Peak Scenic and Historic Byway *Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow National Scenic Byway

Other features and attractions

*Cache La Poudre River, Poudre Canyon *Horsetooth Mountain *Big Thompson Canyon *Medicine Bow Mountains *

Notes

References

External links

*
Rocky Mountain National Park website

Colorado Historical Society

Community website for Larimer County specifically Fort Collins and the surrounding areas.
{{authority control Larimer County, Colorado, 1861 establishments in Colorado Territory Colorado counties Populated places established in 1861