The Town of Granby is the Statutory Town that is the most populous municipality in Grand County,

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 ...

, United States. The town population was 2,079 at the 2020 United States Census. Granby is situated along

U.S. Highway 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes wh ...

in the Middle Park basin, and it is about northwest 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 United ...

and southwest of

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

History

The town was founded in 1904 along the route of the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway and was incorporated one year later. It was named after Granby Hillyer, a Denver lawyer who later served as the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for that city's district. Many Granby and Grand County residents are descended from pioneer settlers who arrived before the country was fully surveyed. Early families established themselves under the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed easy access to land to those who would inhabit and improve upon the territory. Since the turn of the century, families have contended for prime ranch land. The Hudlers and Cooks are descended from original homesteaders. Their waning ranch once covered approximately and was rich in cattle and hay.

Bulldozer rampage

Marvin Heemeyer was a local auto muffler shop owner and entrepreneur who was denied access to his own business property when a factory was approved by the city and built, cutting off his road access. The city later prevented him from building a new driveway that would again allow his business to operate. Later his connection to the local sewage line was destroyed by construction of the neighboring factory, but the city fined him for the damage caused by the new factory construction. On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer went on a rampage through town, driving a modified bulldozer. Several buildings were damaged, including a bank, a hardware store, the concrete company, a utility service center, the town hall, the police department, and a former mayor's home, all involved in Heemeyer's business having been destroyed. The rampage lasted 2 hours and 7 minutes, ending when the bulldozer got stuck attempting to go through the alleyway of Gambles Hardware Store. Heemeyer then killed himself with a handgun. No other deaths occurred, but an estimated $7 million in damage was done.

Geography

Granby sits at above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

in the valley of the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annua ...

, east of its mouth at the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

. It is located in eastern Grand County at (40.086396, -105.936487), in an area subject to average annual rainfall of inches and annual snowfall of more than .

U.S. Route 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes wh ...

passes through the center of town as Agate Avenue, leading south and east over Berthoud Pass to the Denver area, west to

Hot Sulphur Springs Hot Sulphur Springs is a statutory town and the county seat of Grand County, Colorado, United States. The town is located near Byers Canyon between Granby and Kremmling, northwest of Denver and northwest of Winter Park. The town population ...

, the Grand County seat. Kremmling is to the west on US 40. U.S. Route 34 intersects US 40 on the west side of Granby and leads northeast into Rocky Mountain National Park, crossing the mountains as

Trail Ridge Road Trail Ridge Road is the name for the stretch of U.S. Highway 34 that traverses Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado in the east to Grand Lake, Colorado in the west. Together with the connecting Beaver Meadow Road ( U.S. H ...

and reaching Estes Park northeast of Granby. At the 2020 United States Census, the town had a total area of , all of it land.

Climate

This climate type is dominated by the winter season, a long, bitterly cold period with short, clear days, relatively little precipitation mostly in the form of snow, and low humidity. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

system, Granby has a subarctic climate, abbreviated "Dfc" on climate maps.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 1,525 people, 579 households, and 390 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 628 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 96.26%

White White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

, 0.46%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

, 0.26% Native American, 0.98% Asian, 0.07%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Ocea ...

, 1.44% from other races, and 0.52% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 3.61% of the population. There were 579 households, out of which 37.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.3% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.5% were non-families. 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.05. In the town, the population was spread out, with 28.1% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 33.5% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 6.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.3 males. The median income for a household in the town was $46,667, and the median income for a family was $55,250. Males had a median income of $35,455 versus $24,417 for females. The per capita income for the town was $21,224. About 4.0% of families and 5.8% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 3.9% of those under the age of 18 and 9.0% of those ages 65 and older.

Transportation

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

, the national passenger rail system, provides daily service to Granby, operating its '' California Zephyr'' daily in both directions between

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 a ...

, across the bay from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Granby-Grand County Airport , a small airport one mile east of town, serves as a stopover for transient general aviation flights, as well as hosts some local aviation activity. There are currently no scheduled passenger carrier flights into or out of the airport, which features a by asphalt runway. Services at the airport are limited to aviation fuel for both piston and jet/turboprop aircraft. According to the Official Airline Guide (OAG), the airport was previously served by Rocky Mountain Airways which operated scheduled passenger flights to

during the mid 1970s with small de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprop aircraft.April 15, 1975 Official Airline Guide (OAG), North American edition, Denver flight schedules

Notable residents

* Penny Rafferty Hamilton, aviation educator, writer, and photographer * Marvin Heemeyer, perpetrator of the Granby Rampage, in which he built and operated an armoured Komatsu D355A

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous trac ...

dubbed the "Killdozer of Granby"

References

External links

Town of Granby websiteCDOT map of the Town of GranbyGranby Chamber of Commerce''Sky-Hi News''
Granby's local newspaper
Photographs from the Denver Public Library
now kept at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

{{authority control Towns in Colorado Towns in Grand County, Colorado Populated places established in 1904