Town of the Week

Fort Collins, Colorado
June 3, 2000

Head over to Fort Collins, Colorado; just listen in.

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When Rocky Mount Fur Company trappers in northern Colorado were caught in a snowstorm in the 1830s, they hid their supplies in the nearby river banks. Since then this area has become known as the Cache La Pourdre River, French for "hide the powder." An Army post was established at those river banks in 1863, then moved downstream and renamed Fort Collins.

The Fort was abandoned a few years later and a promoter bought the site. They subdivided and sold membership in a new town. It was an attempt to reproduce a colony of private enterprise, within a cooperative framework. Sandstone from Fort Collins provides the foundation for the State Capitol building.

The cultivation of sugar beets and the operation of cattle feedlots became the primary economic force until the creation of Colorado State University, which is the town's chief employer. The Fort Collins Museum has a priceless collection of artifacts from the Folsom People, who hunted the now extinct wooly mammoth in the area.

Old Town is located in the heart of the historic district, and is a year-round entertainment hub. It's a town of 87,000 people, the gateway to Rock Mountain National Park, and our Town of the Week, Fort Collins, Colorado.