Upon leaving Wyoming, we drove down 287 for a quick stop in Fort Collins. We'd landed there once before and been completely charmed but only had the time to sleep over. This time we wanted to see what we really thought.
Fort Collins was actually an Army military outpost founded in 1862. It was established to protect the travelers and the Overland Stage Line and it was named for Lt. Colonel William Collins. It was given the nickname the "Choice City" because at the stopover on the stage line, travelers had to choose whether to move on or settle here. Interesting, no?
When the fort was abandoned in 1867, the remaining settlers turned to agriculture growing mostly sugar beets and wheat.
One of the earliest settlers was Elizabeth "Auntie" Stone. She arrived in 1864 and she and her husband ran the dining hall for the soldiers at Camp Collins. She lived in this log cabin. She also started the first flour mill and brick kiln in Fort Collins.
Elizabeth was an ardent supporter of women's suffrage and voted for the first time in 1893. When she died a year later at age 94, all the businesses in town shut down and the firehouse tower bell tolled 94 times, one for each year of her life.
This is the Carnegie Library. I love these things! It was built in 1904 using a grant of $12,500 from Andrew Carnegie. By 1977, the city had outgrown this building and they built a bigger library on the street behind it. Instead of tearing it down, they repurposed this building to be the Fort Collins Museum. Later, a new, bigger building was constructed to house the museum and this building became a civic arts and creativity center.
This is the Joseph Antoine Janis Cabin. Janis moved to Ft. Collins in 1844 and built this cabin in 1859. He was married to First Elk Woman, a member of the Ogalala Lakota Tribe. In 1878, the Federal Government forced the Lakota people to relocate to a reservation. I guess that included women married to white settlers. Not wanting to leave his family, Janis went with them to what is now the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
This is the Franz-Smith House. German immigrants Henry and Caroline Franz built this house in 1882 on a farm where they raised sugar beets and lambs. In 1936, the house was sold to the Smith family wo raised sheep and cattle on that farm. The Smith family wired the house for electricity but had no plumbing. Since they didn't actually live in this house, I guess that's okay. All three of these cabins are on the property of the Carnegie Library and are part of the Heritage Courtyard.
Ft. Collins is also the county seat of Larimer County. Like most county courthouses, the original was a log cabin of sorts and was used until something more appropriate could be built. In 1887, this cool looking courthouse was erected. Unfortunately, as the county grew, this place became inadequate to handle all the business of the county. In 1957, it was demolished. I read that the tower of this courthouse was so sturdy, it took two days to knock it down! It's too bad. The current courthouse is a modern judicial building with zero character.
In 1870, a land grant established the State Agricultural College which eventually morphed into Colorado State University. We drove over to take a look. It was deserted because it's summer and school has let out. That lone smudge on the steps of this cool building is John. It's their administration building.
That building sits at one end of what is called "The Oval", which is this cool park. There's a side walk that goes around and through it and it's great for getting steps on a lovely afternoon. It's definitely a cool campus.
Back downtown, we stayed at The Elizabeth Hotel, which is where we stayed the last time. We lucked into this place on our first visit and liked it so much that we stayed here again. It's named for Auntie Elizabeth Stone. Among her other accomplishments, she turned the outpost from Camp Collins into the city's first public hotel. This place was nice and is music themed. All the rooms have record players and they have a lending library consisting of tons of record albums in a variety of music genres.
The charm of the downtown area has all these cool restaurants in some old buildings. I love the ghost signs that you can still see on a lot of them. This was one of my favorites because I'm a sucker for a Coca-Cola mural. This is called a "privilege sign" and was painted back in 1958 when Angell's Delicatessen was housed in this building. A privilege sign is a vintage term for when a big company provides the sign to local merchants for free in exchange for the privilege of prominent free advertising on the store front. So, I'm guessing Coca-Cola helped out with this. I love it!
Music is a big thing in downtown Ft. Collins. This is in the Old Town Square where they have live music. This is a really good Tejano Band called Banda La Patrona. They were really good.
We drove around Ft. Collins looking at houses for sale and found that the vibe that charmed us so much the first time we came here didn't really extend outside the downtown area. We also found that while there's a regional airport here, all commercial flights come in and out of Denver International Airport which is about 70 miles from here.
Another thing we realized was that it was as hot in Ft. Collins as it was at home. So why move?
We thoroughly enjoyed two days of rest and relaxation in Ft. Collins at the lovely Elizabeth Hotel. But while it's a great place to visit, we wouldn't want to live here. But don't take my word for it! Check it out.
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