Larimer County is a
county located in the
U.S. state of
Colorado. As of the
2010 census, the population was 299,630.
The
county seat and most populous city is
Fort Collins.
The county was named for
William Larimer, Jr., the founder of
Denver.
Larimer County comprises the Fort Collins, CO
Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is located at the northern end of the
Front Range, at the edge of the
Colorado Eastern Plains along the border with
Wyoming.
History
Larimer County was created in 1861, and was named after General William Larimer.
Unlike that of much of Colorado, which was founded on the
mining of
gold and
silver, the settlement of Larimer County was based almost entirely on
agriculture, an industry that few thought possible in the region during the initial days of the
Colorado Gold Rush. The mining boom almost entirely passed the county by. It would take the introduction of
irrigation 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 and
Arapaho living on the
piedmont areas along the base of the foothills.
French fur trappers 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 and was organized as part of the
Missouri Territory. In 1828
William H. Ashley ascended the
Cache la Poudre River on his way to the
Green River in present-day
Utah. The river itself received its name in the middle 1830s from an obscure incident in which French-speaking trappers hid
gunpowder along its banks, somewhere near present-day
Laporte or
Bellvue. In 1848 a group of
Cherokee crossed through the county following the North Fork of the Poudre to the
Laramie Plains on their way to
California along a route that became known as the
Cherokee Trail.
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 first U.S. settlers arrived that same year in a party led by
Antoine Janis from
Fort Laramie. 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 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. In 1862, the
United States Army 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
Fort Collins, 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
railroads. County residents were disappointed when the
Denver Pacific Railroad bypassed the county in 1870 in favor of
Greeley. The first railroad finally arrived in the county in 1877 when the
Colorado Central Railroad extended a line north from
Golden via
Longmont to
Cheyenne. The town council of Fort Collins designated
right-of-way 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
platted towns of
Loveland and
Berthoud, named respectively after the
president and
chief surveyor of the Colorado Central. Likewise
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. Although the line was never extended over the mountains, it opened up the quarrying of stone for the railroad at
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 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 Co. in Loveland. In the following decade, the sugar beet industry brought large numbers of
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
Western Slope water, and carried it over to the
Front Range Colorado counties of
Boulder, Larimer and
Weld, along with an 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—east
*
Boulder County—south
*
Grand County—southwest
*
Jackson County—west
*
Albany County, Wyoming—northwest
Major highways
*
Interstate 25
*
U.S. Highway 34
*
U.S. Highway 36
*
U.S. Highway 87
*
U.S. Highway 287
*
State Highway 1
*
State Highway 7
*
State Highway 14
*
State Highway 56
*
State Highway 60
*
State Highway 66
*
State Highway 392
*
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/km
2). There were 105,392 housing units at an average density of 40 per square mile (16/km
2). The racial makeup of the county was 91.44%
White, 0.66%
Black or
African American, 0.66%
Native American, 1.56%
Asian, 0.08%
Pacific Islander, 3.41% from
other races, and 2.19% from two or more races. 8.27% of the population were
Hispanic or
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
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
*
Fort Collins
*
Loveland
Towns
*
Berthoud (partially in Larimer and partially in Weld county)
*
Estes Park
*
Johnstown (partially in Larimer and partially in Weld county)
*
Red Feather Lakes
*
Timnath
*
Wellington
*
Windsor (partially in Larimer and partially in Weld County)
Census-designated places
*
LaPorte
*
Red Feather Lakes
Unincorporated communities
*
Bellvue
*
Buckeye
*
Campion
*
Cherokee Park
*
Drake
*
Glendevey
*
Glen Haven
*
Livermore
*
Kinikinik
*
Masonville
*
Norfolk
*
Pinewood Springs
*
Pingree Park
*
Poudre Park
*
Rustic
*
Waverly
Ghost towns
*
Manhattan
*
Old Roach
*
Virginia Dale
Politics
Larimer was previously a Republican stronghold. Between 1920 and 2004, the only Democrat to ever win an absolute majority of votes in the county was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. It is also a bellwether county; as of the
2020 election, it has voted for the statewide winner in every election since
1948, when
Harry Truman carried Colorado without it.
However, increasing urbanization, as well as the influence of Colorado State, 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.
Education
* Park R3 (
Estes Park)
Park R3
/ref>
* Poudre R1 (Fort Collins & Surrounding Area)
* 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
*Poudre Canyon
*Horsetooth Mountain
*Big Thompson Canyon
*Medicine Bow Mountains
*Front Range
See also
* Colorado census statistical areas
* Fort Collins-Loveland Metropolitan Statistical Area
* Front Range Urban Corridor
* Heele County, Jefferson Territory
* Index of Colorado-related articles
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Larimer County, Colorado
* Outline of Colorado
* Justin Smith, sheriff of Larimer County since 2011
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
Category:1861 establishments in Colorado Territory
Category:Colorado counties
Category:Populated places established in 1861