Larimer County, CO Summer Camps

About Larimer County, CO

Larimer County is the seventh most populous and the ninth most extensive of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States . The county is located at the northern end of the Front Range , at the edge of the Colorado Eastern Plains along the border with Wyoming . Larimer County was named for William Larimer, Jr. , the founder of Denver , who is believed to have never have set foot in the county. As of the 2010 census , the county population was 299,630. The county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins . The Fort Collins-Loveland Metropolitan Statistical Area comprises Larimer County.

History of Larimer County, CO

Larimer County was created in 1861 as one of seventeen original counties in the Colorado Territory ; however, its western boundary was disputed. Controversy existed as to whether Larimer County ended at the Medicine Bow Range or at the Continental Divide thirty miles further west. An 1886 Colorado Supreme Court decision set the boundary at the Continental Divide, although the land between the Medicine Bow Range and the divide was made part of Jackson County in 1909. Unlike that of much of Colorado, which was founded on the mining of gold and silver , the settlement of Larimer County was based almost entirely on agriculture , an industry that few thought possible in the region during the initial days of the Colorado Gold Rush . The mining boom almost entirely passed the county by. It would take the introduction of irrigation to the region in the 1860s to bring the first widespread settlement to the area. Early history Wagon trail pass near Fort Collins, Colorado , from a sketch taken 7 June 1859. At the time of the arrival of Europeans in the early 19th century, the present-day county was occupied by Native Americans , with the Utes occupying the mountainous areas and the Cheyenne and Arapaho living on the piedmont areas along the base of the foothills. French fur trappers infiltrated the area in the early decades of the 19th century, soon after the area became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase and was organized as part of the Missouri Territory . In 1828 William H.

Larimer County, CO Summer Camps