Fort Collins

The American Guides Project

Bus Stations: Laporte Ave. and Mason St., for Burlington Trailways; College and Laporte Aves. for Colorado Motorways.

Baseball: Athletic Field, West Oak St.; Municipal baseball field, Mountain Ave.

FORT COLLINS (4,981 alt., 11,489 pop.), seat of Larimer County and site of the Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, is the chief wholesale and retail center of the north-central Colorado agricultural area, and a shipping point for an extensive livestock-feeding district. Railroad tracks along the Cache la Poudre River serve leading docks, a sugar factory, and numerous grist and grain mills. In this section, laid out at right angles to the main part of the city, stood a short-lived military post; Canyon Avenue, now but three blocks long, dates from earliest freighting days when it was part of the "gun-barrel" route to mining camps and stone-quarry towns.

Long before the founding of the town, this pleasant spot appealed to pioneer travelers as a camping ground. During the great Mormon migration of the 1850's, services were held by members of that faith in the cottonwood groves along the river. The first actual settlement was the small military post moved here in 1864 from Laporte. Named Camp Collins and later Fort Collins for Lieutenant William 0. Collins, commanding officer at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, the camp was established for the protection of the few scattered ranchers and farmers in the Cache la Poudre Valley, as well as to guard the Overland Trail, then virtually closed to travel by Indian uprisings. Civilians and soldiers, however, did not get along well, for the former disliked the men in uniform almost as much as they disliked the Indians, charging the soldiers with being "overbearing." The soldiers, on the other hand, complained that the cattle of the ranchers and farmers ate up the unfenced haystacks reserved for military stock; most of the action seen by men stationed at the fort consisted of chasing cattle away from the prized hay.

The military post was abandoned in 1871, but the settlement that had grown up around it retained the name. This village attracted many of the newcomers to north-central Colorado; in 1873 a town company modeled on the successful Union colony at Greeley was organized by General Robert A. Cameron, and Fort Collins was incorporated in 1879. Its growth was stimulated by development of the sugar beet industry in the irrigated sections of the State and the building of a sugar factory here in 1903; property values soared and an increasing number of settlers came into the region. The opening of the Fort Collins-Wellington oil field in 1923 further stimulated growth. Within the next decade the population increased 25 per cent.

The economy of Fort Collins is largely based on produce grown in the surrounding agricultural territory. Alfalfa, small grains, and sugar beets are the chief crops of the valley, but fruits and vegetables are raised in large quantities. Stock raising is of great importance, lamb feeding alone representing an investment of $25,000,000. The principal industrial unit is the Great Western Sugar Factory; smaller units include three flour mills, seven dairies, and two meat packing plants, the products of which are consumed locally. In addition, other plants depend upon the quarries south and west of the city. Cement, bricks, and tile are manufactured here ; red sandstone from the hills is dressed and shipped; there is a large manufactory of alabaster art objects. The production of dressed lumber, once a thriving industry here, has almost ceased.

Fort Collins has a commission form of government, with three commissioners elected for two-year terms. The street railway, light, and water systems are municipally owned. The majority of the broad streets are shaded with trees, and West Mountain and South College Avenues, the principal thoroughfares, are divided by 20-foot landscaped parkways. In the residential district around the college are fraternity and sorority houses and the homes of faculty members.

The COLORADO STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS (building open during school hours unless otherwise indicated), main entrance at W. Laurel and Howe Sts., on the southern edge of the city, occupies a campus of 160 acres. Most of the gray and red brick buildings are grouped about an oval landscaped drive. The college was founded in 1870, but classes did not open until 1879 because the legislation authorizing it had required Fort Collins citizens to provide the land and the first buildings. Experiments carried on in laboratories and fields here have resulted in numerous improvements in farming methods throughout the State. Studies are carried on in soil and moisture conservation, crop rotation, livestock breeding, and the development of new and improved varieties of standard grains. Courses in civil, electrical, chemical, mechanical, and irrigation engineering are offered students interested in mechanical arts. In addition to the regular four-year course, the college offers advanced study in its graduate school. The 1939 enrollment was 1,892.

The first classes were held in OLD MAIN, a three-story red brick building near the South College St. entrance, which now houses general class rooms, an auditorium, and some of the administrative offices. North of Old Main are the CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC; the ELECTRICAL BUILDING, the older portion of which once served as a boys' dormitory; and the HORTICULTURAL BUILDING; all built of red brick on red sandstone foundations. A large GREENHOUSE, one of several on the campus, adjoins the Horticultural Building. Directly south of Old Main is the three-story red brick BOTANY BUILDING, with a large greenhouse and an annex housing the Station Chemistry division, operated in conjunction with the U. S. Bureau of Plant Survey, and the white brick GYMNASIUM AND FIELD HOUSE. South of the Gymnasium is COLORADO FIELD, with gridiron, race track, and baseball diamond ringed by a stadium seating 7,000. West of the stadium are grouped the MILITARY CORRALS, R. O. T. C. HEADQUARTERS AND CLASS Rooms, R. O. T. C. EQUIPMENT SHEDS, and the DAIRY AND MEATS LABORATORIES.

West of Old Main lies the gray sandstone ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY BUILDING, to which is connected the MUSEUM and the ENTOMOLOGY LABORATORY. The museum houses an exhaustive exhibit of Colorado flora and fauna, specimens from many other States and foreign countries, a large exhibit of insects, geological specimens from the Rocky Mountain region, Indian artifacts, pioneer relics, a ceramic exhibit ranging from early Assyrian pottery to modern European and American pieces, and a coin collection representing almost every country of the ancient and modern worlds.

North of the Entomology Building is a large frame CAFETERIA, with a seating capacity of 240, in addition to two large private dining rooms, and the three-story white brick PHYSICS BUILDING, both fronting on the eastern side of the Oval. At the southern end of the Oval is the ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, the largest on the campus, a four-story structure of white tapestry brick, housing the administrative offices. Its lower halls are decorated with relief maps of all parts of the State, the most notable being a giant map of the Roosevelt National Forest.

East of the Administration Building is the STUDENT UNION BUILDING (open daily 7:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.), a three-story gray tapestry brick building used for student activities and recreation.

On the western side of the Oval are the two-story white brick CHEMISTRY BUILDING, the three-story white brick ENGINEERING BUILDING, housing the Civil and Irrigation Divisions of Engineering and the U. S. Weather Bureau station, and the LIBRARY (open to public; 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 2-5 p.m. Sundays), a two-story gray brick and stone building. The library, built in 1927, contains 84,000 books and 25,000 pamphlets; it was founded in the early 1880's by Dr. E. E. Edwards, the first college president, who contributed his private library for the use of the students. This is a depository library—one selected by the Federal Government to house and make accessible to the public all reference documents issued by it.

Directly west of the Engineering Building is the HYDRAULIC LABORATORY, operated in conjunction with the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation. In this one-story red brick building are exact miniature models of dams either proposed or under construction, irrigation reservoirs, and similar projects. From models built and operated here, designs of the Owyhee, Grand Coulee, Boulder, and other great dams were tested, revised, and approved. At the rear of the Hydraulic Laboratory is a concrete-walled flume used for testing large-capacity stream flow meters.

Southwest of the Oval are the VETERINARY BUILDING, the VETERINARY HOSPITAL, and the FORESTRY BUILDING; still farther west lie the COLLEGE FARM BARNS, SHEDS, and PAVILIONS.

At the northern end of the campus, fronting West Laurel St., are the WOOD AND METAL TRAINING SHOPS, the MECHANICAL ENGINEERING HALL AND LABORATORY, and the GUGGENHEIM HALL OF HOUSEHOLD ARTS, a Guggenheim donation in 1910. Farther west are AMMONS HALL (open daily; 7:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.), the GIRLS' RECREATION BUILDING, the PRESCHOOL LABORATORY, and the GIRLS' DORMITORY.

CITY PARK, a landscaped area on the western edge of the city, centers on a large natural lake. Recreational facilities include a dance hall, children's play grounds, a softball field, and tennis and quoit courts; a nine-hole golf course is under construction. Concerts are held at the band stand built on a slight rise near the lake.

The CARNEGIE PUBLIC LIBRARY (open 9-9 weekdays; 3-6 Sundays) occupies a square on Mathews St. between Oak and Olive Sts., known as Lincoln Park. The two-story gray sandstone building houses 26,000 books and bound periodicals. In the square is the ANTOINE JANIS CABIN, a small one-story structure of hand-hewn logs, removed from its original site west of Laporte. Built in 1854-55, it was the first settler's dwelling on the Poudre River.

The AUNTY STONE CABIN (admission by permission), 241 Mason St., is a log cabin built in 1864 by Judge Lewis Stone as a mess hall for officers of Camp Collins. When the post was abandoned, his wife maintained it as a restaurant. Brought here in 1908, it now serves as the meeting hall of the Larimer County Pioneers' Association.

The LARIMER COUNTY COURTHOUSE, occupying a square on W. Mountain Ave. between Howe and Mason Sts., is a two-story red brick building erected in 1887-88. The adjoining jail was the scene of Larimer County's only lynching. In 1888 a man accused of murdering his wife was hanged from a derrick used in the construction of the building.

Lindenmier Site, 53 miles; Natural Fort, 32.5 miles (see Tour 12a); Fort Collins Mountain Park, 32 miles (see Tour 2); Site of Virginia Dale Stage Station, 35.9 miles (see Tour 13A).