Agate is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

Elbert County Elbert County is the name of two counties in the United States: *Elbert County, Colorado *Elbert County, Georgia Elbert County is a county located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the populatio ...

, Colorado, United States. The ZIP Code of the Agate

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

is 80101.

History

The town of Gebhard was established by the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

about 1876. The Gebhard post office opened on April 8, 1881. The name of the town was changed to Agate on April 24, 1882. Although "Gebhard" was established by the UPRR, the town of Agate existed, by that name, as a locality used by local ranchers prior to the construction of the railroad. The town's name most probably comes from an "A-gate" – a wooden gate with an A-shaped cross-brace, but is sometimes claimed to be named for

agate Agate ( ) is a banded variety of chalcedony. Agate stones are characterized by alternating bands of different colored chalcedony and sometimes include macroscopic quartz. They are common in nature and can be found globally in a large number of d ...

found in the area. The northeasternmost community in Elbert County, Agate is a ranching community and the home of Agate School District 300, one of the smallest school districts in Colorado.

Geography

Agate is located in northeast

at coordinates . Agate is located on one of the four segments of old

US 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America (a nickname shared with U.S. Route 66), is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid- ...

US 287 U.S. Route 287 (US 287) is a north–south (physically northwest–southeast) United States highway. At long, it is the second longest three-digit U.S. Route, behind U.S. Route 281, US 281. The highway is broken into two segments by Ye ...

(now State Highway 40) just off

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...

at exit 340, and along the Union Pacific Railroad line between Limon and Aurora. It is located approximately 12 miles SSE of Deer Trail. The town is located on a NNW-SSE ridge bounded by an unnamed ravine separating it from the ridge on which I-70 is constructed, and by the Agate Creek valley to the west, and is divided by the railroad tracks. The school, post office, and a number of businesses and homes are located east of the tracks, and a grain elevator and a few houses to the west of the tracks. In recent years, several small subdivisions have been platted and homes constructed in the general area.

Cemeteries

* River Bend Cemetery: Take Exit 354 off I-70 5 miles west of Limon, CO. Follow frontage road north of the interstate through cattle gate and turn left up the hill approx. 1/2 mile * Norton Cemetery * Gair Cemetery

Emergency services

Agate Fire Department

References

External links