“On April 12, 1861, the Civil War began with a Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter. One month later, at the age of 31, George Edgar Buss enlisted in New York’s 14th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company F, signing up for two years of service.”
“In 1863, when he was mustered out, he re-enlisted for a three year term, this time in a cavalry unit. The war ended before his second tour of duty was finished, so he was sent to Fort Collins, a small military outpost along the Overland Trail in the northern part of the Colorado Territory.” (Dunn, Northern Colorado History)
His wife Amelia traveled to Colorado in 1866 “[T]he family’s first winter was exceedingly difficult. Amelia kept a diary of her first year in Colorado. In it she tells of one of her nearest neighbors, Mrs. Jesse Sherwood, coming to visit and saying, ‘I really pity you in coming here.’” (Dunn, Northern Colorado History)
During the 1800s, the U.S. Government and other companies built forts along the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails to protect the emigrants traveling west and to also provide supplies for these wagon trains. Forts and outposts that were built along the Overland Trails in the States of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. (NPS)
“British, Canadian, French, Spanish, and American forts were distributed from the Prairie Provinces to West Texas and from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, although not evenly and not all having a strictly military purpose.”
“Broadly defined, Great Plains forts [in the rolling grasslands and agricultural land that slopes gently eastward from the Rocky Mountain foothills to the Kansas border] fell into two groups. Forts of the first group were places from which to carry on commerce, a staging area for traders of furs and robes. Forts of the second group, detailed here, were places from which to execute war, a staging area for soldiers.” (Plains Humanities)
“Fort Collins was founded in 1864 as a military fort called ‘Camp Collins.’ The camp was named by Gen. James Craig to honor Lt. Col. William Oliver Collins, who commanded the Ohio Cavalry troops headquartered at Fort Laramie. Soldiers from Kansas were originally sent to the area in 1862 to guard the Overland Stage Line and protect the Cherokee trail.”
“North of Fort Collins, U.S. Route 287 follows the path of the Overland Trail north to Laramie. West of Laramie the Overland Trail route was closely followed by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 and the Lincoln Highway and Interstate 80 in the 20th century.” (Visit Laramie)
“The Overland Trail was a critical route in the westward expansion of the United States. Stretching from western Kansas to Salt Lake City, the trail passed through parts of modern-day Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.”
“In its early days, the trail was primarily used by people traveling west to reach Salt Lake City and California, as well as mining settlements in the Rockies during the Colorado Gold Rush. The Overland Trail was developed with heavy emphasis as a stagecoach mail line, serving the Overland Stage Company owned by Ben Holladay and later Wells Fargo.” (CSU History Matters)
“Colorado troops took over the camp, then located in LaPorte, about 3½ months later. Collins sent some of his men to Fort Collins to relieve Colorado troops in May 1864.” (Kyle, Coloradoan) “A devastating flood rushed down the canyon of the Cache la Poudre River during the night of June 9, 1864. Flooding Camp Collins, it carried tents, ammunition and some of the cabins downstream.”
“Soon a search began for a new location for the post. Joseph Mason (credited with being Fort Collins’ first white settler) was living on his farm between the present North Shields and Wood Street on Vine Drive. Mason pointed out land on the Cache la Poudre River in the vicinity of the present Willow Street.”
“On August 20, 1864, Col. Collins signed the order setting aside the present location of Fort Collins as the new military reservation. Here the danger of flooding would be less and sufficient land was available without interfering with the claims of individuals. Thus it is August 20 that Fort Collins Historical Society honors as the celebration of Fort Collins’ birthday.”
“In October of 1864 the new post was ready for occupation and the term ‘Fort Collins’ is used instead of ‘Camp Collins’ in the order book, although there seems to have been no official order for the change. For almost two years Fort Collins remained a military post”. (Fort Collins History Connection)
“When General William T. Sherman visited Fort Collins in 1866, he determined that threats to the trails and settlers in the area had been substantially reduced and that the fort was no longer of military use. … In 1867, President Johnson ordered the post abandoned. (Fort Collins History Connection)
“A few farms and ranches were located around Fort Collins and squatters settled on the abandoned military reservation in ‘Old Town’ … Finally on May 15, 1872, Congress opened the reservation to pre-emption homesteading and that same year the Agricultural Colony arrived to buy land and plat out Fort Collins.”
“Old Town had been built parallel to the river, while New Town was attached to it, being square with the compass. Fort Collins was incorporated as a town February 3, 1873. Statistics of 1870 give the entire population of Larimer County as 838 people.” (Fort Collins History Connection)
“The colony movement, which led to the successful founding of Greeley, was also important in the growth of Fort Collins and the surrounding area. The movement was an attempt to reduce the hazards of moving to the frontier by bringing an entire community to help establish a settlement.”
“In 1869, a group of men representing families in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, arrived in Fort Collins looking for a site for a colony. … Unfortunately, the colony soon ran out of money and abandoned the undertaking.” (Fort Collins History Connection)
“The Fort Collins colony was a scheme developed by Robert A. Cameron, who had become superintendent of the Greeley Colony. … The group planned the new colony to spread what they believed were the benefits of the Greeley experience, as well as to reap profit from the sale of land.”
On May 15, 1872, “the military reservation was officially opened to settlement, and a new era of development ensued. The improvement company purchased lands and sold certificates of membership in their new colony which entitled the holder to commercial or residential lots or farm tracts, depending upon the cost of the membership.” (Fort Collins History Connection)
“Despite the establishment of important businesses and the erection of several frame and brick buildings, [there was] the ‘gloomy’ period following 1873 showed little progress for the town.”
“After the initial boom in population resulting from the creation of the colony, building activity dwindled and a number of people moved elsewhere in search of brighter prospects. The Panic of 1873, which resulted in bank and business failures throughout the country had an effect on the local economy.”
“Another milepost in Fort Collins’ progress was the opening of Colorado Agricultural College (now Colorado State University (CSU)) in the fall of 1879. Ten years later the first high school opened on the second floor of Franklin School, which once stood where Steele’s Market on West Mountain is now located.” (Fort Collins History Connection)
“The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 altered the usage and significance of overland stagecoach trails. By the late 1870s and early 1880s, railroad networks were becoming a more reliable, safer, and luxurious form of transport, and the development of tourism to the region began to grow.”
“By the early 20th century, stagecoach travel was essentially dead. The explosion of the automobile industry and its promise of individualized travel led to the growth of road networks and highway systems, which largely replaced railroad travel in the Western United States.”
“However, large portions of early highway networks in Colorado and Wyoming, like the Lincoln Highway and I-80, were heavily based on the Overland Trail route.” (CSU History Matters)
“Around the 1940s, when hunting for a nickname for their fair city, Fort Collins garden clubs looked no further than the lilac bushes growing in their own backyards. Fort Collins shall hereby be called “The Lilac City,” they declared. … It didn’t stick.”
“Through the 1950s, pamphlets and tourism ads for the growing Northern Colorado community heralded it as “Fortunate Fort Collins,” an up-and-coming oasis in the state’s “Horn of Plenty” – where agriculture, industry, scenery and outdoor sports so wholesomely converged. … That one fizzled, too.”
“It wasn’t until later that decade that Fort Collins truly found its footing in the nickname department, becoming – once and for all – the Choice City.” (Udell, Coloradoan)
“Harper Goff, who created Disneyland’s Main Street USA with Walt Disney, grew up in Fort Collins. Harper came back to Fort Collins in the 1950s to photograph the buildings of his youth”.
“Fort Collins and Walt Disney’s hometown, Marceline, Missouri [were] an inspiration and models for Disneyland’s Main Street USA.” “‘Disneyland’s City Hall was copied from Fort Collins… so was the Bank building and some of the others.’” (Harper Goff ) (Fort Collins History Connection)
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