Bellvue, Colorado
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Bellvue is an
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
and
U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...
in
Larimer County Larimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359,066. The county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins. The county was named for William Larimer, Jr., the founder of Denver. ...
,
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 ...
. It is a small agricultural community located in Pleasant Valley, a narrow valley just northwest of
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'' ...
near the mouth of the
Poudre Canyon The Poudre Canyon is a narrow verdant canyon, approximately 40 mi (64 km) long, on the upper Cache la Poudre River (called the "Poudre" for short, which locals pronounce as "Pooder") in Larimer County, Colorado in the United States. Th ...
between the
Dakota Hogback :  North terminus: :  South terminus: The Dakota Hogback is a long hogback ridge at the eastern fringe of the Rocky Mountains that extends north-south from southern Wyoming through Colorado and into northern New Mexico in the United St ...
ridge and the foothills of the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
. The ZIP Code of the Bellvue
Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
is 80512.


Description

The community is lush area on the south side of 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 ...
, at the mouth of Rist Canyon, concealed from the open
Colorado Piedmont The Colorado Piedmont is an area along the base of the foothills of the Front Range in north central Colorado in the United States. The region consists of a broad hilly valley, just under 5000 ft (1500 m) in elevation, stretching north and northe ...
near Fort Collins and LaPorte by the Bellvue Dome, also known as " Goat Hill". The valley formerly stretched southward between the hogback and foothills into the area now inundated by
Horsetooth Reservoir Horsetooth Reservoir (often known locally as Horsetooth) is a large reservoir in southern Larimer County, Colorado, in the foothills just west of the city of Fort Collins, Colorado. The reservoir runs north-south for approximately 6.5 miles (1 ...
. The main agriculture in the valley is cultivation of
hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...
and other crops, as well as
cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...
and
horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
ranches. The Colorado Division of Wildlife maintains a large
trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...
hatchery A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish, poultry or even turtles. It may be used for ex-situ conservation purposes, i.e. to breed rare or endangered species under controlled cond ...
in the valley just north of the Bellvue town site.


History

Paleoindian sites nearby, including a large bison kill site along the Poudre River, indicate human habitation dating back over 10,000 years. In the early 19th century, the area was inhabited by bands of
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 ...
, who clashed regularly in small skirmishes with bands of the
Ute tribe Ute () are the Indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture among the Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. They had lived in sovereignty in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the Southwestern United States for many centuries unt ...
who inhabited the mountains. Archaeological remains of
teepee A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...
rings can be found in the surrounding foothills. The first white settlers arrived in the valley soon after Antoine Janis became the first white settler in northern Colorado in 1858. The farm and pasture lands were squatted upon in the two years that followed, so that most was claimed by G.R. Sanderson, one of these first settlers, who built the first
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 ...
ditch in the county in June 1860. The ditch was the second one constructed in northern Colorado. Sanderson sold his claim to J.H. Yeager in 1864, and the ditch came to be known as the Yeager ditch. Another early settler, Samuel Bingham, settled on the west slope of Bingham Hill in 1860. In 1860, Abner Loomis, who was also an early prominent resident of Fort Collins, settled on a ranch in the valley. Other early settlers in the 1860s included Benjamin T. Whedbee, Perry J. Bosworth, C.W. Harrington, and Louis Blackstock. In 1873, Jacob Flowers arrived in the valley and set up a homestead on a parcel of land he purchased from Joseph Mason. Flowers had migrated westward from
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and
Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
after the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
and had settled temporarily in Greeley in 1872. The following year, Flowers followed the Poudre upstream and founded the town of "Bellevue" later that year (the name was later shortened). The area was considered desirable by the
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
because of the many stone
quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
in the area near the town of Stout (now flooded by Horsetooth Reservoir). The influx of railroad workers to work the quarries prompted Flowers to open a general store, saloon, barber shop, and post office. In 1880 he built a one-story
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
structure to house his business. The Bellvue
Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
opened in the building on June 24, 1884. The building served as the local general store and post office up through the middle 20th century, when it became the meeting house of Cache la Poudre Grange, Chapter 456 of the Colorado State grange, a designation for which it is now commonly known. Flowers also constructed a track and bandstand south of town that was used for horse racing, community celebrations, traveling
medicine show Medicine shows were touring acts (traveling by truck, horse, or wagon teams) that peddled "miracle cure" patent medicines and other products between various entertainments. They developed from European mountebank shows and were common in the Unit ...
s, and dog and pony shows.


Geography

Bellvue is located at (40.625679,-105.171089).


See also

* Outline of Colorado **
Index of Colorado-related articles This is an alphabetical list of articles related to the U.S. State of Colorado. 0–9 * .co.us – Internet second-level domain for the State of Colorado * 4 Corners ** 4 Corners Monument * 6th Principal Meridian * 10-mile Range * 10th ...
* State of Colorado ** Colorado cities and towns **
Colorado counties The U.S. State of Colorado is divided into 64 counties. Two of these counties, the City and County of Broomfield and the City and County of Denver, have consolidated city and county governments. Denver serves as the state capital. Counties are ...
*** Larimer County, Colorado **
Colorado metropolitan areas The U.S. state of Colorado has twenty-one statistical areas that have been delineated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Statistical areas are important geographic delineations of population clusters used by the OMB, the United States ...
*** Front Range Urban Corridor ***
North Central Colorado Urban Area 240px, An enlargeable map of the 13-county North Central Colorado Urban Area The North Central Colorado Urban Area comprises the four contiguous metropolitan statistical areas in the north central region of the State of Colorado: the Denver–Au ...
***
Fort Collins-Loveland, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area 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'' ...


References


External links

History of Larimer County, Colorado, Ansel Watrous (1911). {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Larimer County, Colorado Unincorporated communities in Colorado