Recent Articles

At the Corner of College and Drake – an Auto Dealership

The former Ghent Motor as it looked on June 23, 2025.The post WWII years were a time of explosive growth in Fort Collins. The city's population in 1950 was 14,937. Ten years later it was 25,027, an increase of 40%. And by 1970, it had risen again to 43,337, yet...

At the Corner of College and Drake – a Lamb Farm

William and Nettie Drake used to operate a lamb farm at the corner of Drake Rd. and College Ave. in Fort Collins.

Resources for a Deeper Dive into the Klan in Colorado During the 1920s

In 2019, I wrote seven articles on the Klan in Colorado during the 1920s, plus I put together a timeline (that I need to update, so small caveat there). – An Overview of the Klan in Colorado, Part 1 – Chronological Context– When the Klan Came to Colorado, Part 2 –...

The Mercer Colony

This is a working page. That means I'm using it as a data collection site, but publishing it so that others can see what info I've got so far.Ansel Watrous described the Mercer Colony in his book, History of Larimer County, Colorado (1911). In the summer of 1869,...

The Vandewark House on a Postcard

The Vandewarks moved into this house in 1909. There’s a parking lot there today.

The Town of East Collins

The Town of East CollinsImage from the Archive at FCMoD of the Buckingham District, C01533.On March 18, 1903, the Weekly Courier announced that Fort Collins was growing. A plat map had just been filed with the county clerk for a neighborhood just north of East Lincoln...

Charles T. Birdwhistle

(Image from the Archive at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, M00350.)On April 25, 1898, the U.S. Congress declared war on Spain. Upon hearing the news, a 17-year-old resident of North Topeka, Kansas, by the name of Charles Birdwhistle, along with his good friend,...

A Short History of the Berthoud Historical Society

In 1976, the mayor of the town of Berthoud (along with many other Colorado communities) created a Centennial-Bicentennial committee whose purpose was to plan events and festivities to recognize the Colorado Centennial and the United States Bicentennial. As Northern...

Lincoln Junior High / Middle School 100 Year Anniversary!

Happy Birthday, Lincoln!Lincoln Middle School began on September 5, 1922.In 1921, a northern addition was added to the Fort Collins High School. The plan was to use the space for grade school classes (1st-8th) until the high school needed to expand into the space. In...

Index of posts related to race, inequality, or marginalization

Racial History of Northern Colorado After the events of this past month, I've had several people reach out to me asking about what our local history has been regarding racial issues. So I've put together a collection of links to articles I've written. Racism in Fort...

We haven’t started the postcard archive yet, but we will be publishing a postcard book soon! Stay tuned for more details.

Articles by Region

(Some areas have one or two skimpy articles. Others have many, many articles. By laying the various parts of northern Colorado out like this, it’ll help me to make sure I’m hitting history in all parts of this region. If you there’s something you’d to learn more about, or that you already know a lot about, let me know and perhaps it could become an article on the site.)