Editing Fort Collins, Colorado (section)

==History==
The [[Northern Arapaho]] were centered in the [[Cache la Poudre River]] Valley near present-day Fort Collins. [[Friday (Arapaho chief)|Friday]], who attended school in [[St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]] in his youth, was a leader of the band of Arapahos as well as an interpreter, negotiator, and peacemaker. He made friends of white settlers who moved into the area, but was pushed out of Colorado in the 1860s.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dunn |first=Meg |title=Friday, the Arapaho – Northern Colorado History |url=http://www.northerncoloradohistory.com/friday-the-arapaho/ |access-date=December 8, 2021 |language=en-US |archive-date=December 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208030118/https://www.northerncoloradohistory.com/friday-the-arapaho/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Fort Collins was founded as a military outpost of the [[United States Army]] in 1864. It succeeded a previous encampment, known as [[Camp Collins]], on the [[Cache la Poudre River]], near what is known today as [[Laporte, Colorado|Laporte]]. Camp Collins was erected during the Indian wars of the mid-1860s to protect the Overland mail route that had been recently relocated through the region. Travelers crossing the county on the [[Overland Trail]] would camp there, but a flood destroyed the camp in June 1864.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ci.fort-collins.co.us/oem/historical-flooding.php |title=Flooding Timeline in Fort Collins |access-date=September 28, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090125183726/http://www.ci.fort-collins.co.us/oem/historical-flooding.php |archive-date=January 25, 2009 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> Afterward, the commander of the fort wrote to the commandant of [[Fort Laramie National Historic Site|Fort Laramie]] in southeast Wyoming, Colonel [[William O. Collins]], suggesting that a site several miles farther down the river would make a good location for the fort. The post was manned originally by two companies of the [[11th Ohio Cavalry Regiment|11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry]] and never had walls.<ref name = "l1860"/>
[[File:Fort Collins, Colorado (19th Century).jpg|thumb|left|Bird's-eye view of Fort Collins in 1899]]
[[File:Fort Collins, 1875.jpg|thumb|right|Fort Collins, facing west (1875)]]
[[File:Poudre Valley Bank, Fort Collins, Colorado.jpg|thumb|right|Poudre Valley Bank, at Linden and Walnut, in Fort Collins (1908)]]

Settlers began arriving in the vicinity of the fort nearly immediately. The fort was decommissioned in 1867. The original fort site is now adjacent to the present historic "Old Town" portion of the city. The first school and church opened in 1866, and the town was [[plat]]ted in 1867. The civilian population of Fort Collins, led by local businessman Joseph Mason, led an effort to relocate the county seat to Fort Collins from LaPorte, and they were successful in 1868.<ref name="l1860">{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1860.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1860 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232717/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1860.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref>

The city's first population boom came in 1872, with the establishment of an agricultural colony. Hundreds of settlers arrived, developing lots just south of the original Old Town. Tension between new settlers and earlier inhabitants led to political divisions in the new town, which was incorporated in 1873. Although the Colorado Agricultural College was founded in 1870, the first classes were held in 1879.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://welcome.colostate.edu/index.asp?url=history |title=History of Colorado State University |access-date=May 12, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012223229/http://welcome.colostate.edu/index.asp?url=history |archive-date=October 12, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The 1880s saw the construction of a number of elegant homes and commercial buildings and the growth of a distinctive identity for Fort Collins. Stone quarrying, sugar-beet farming, and the [[Animal slaughter|slaughter]] of sheep were among the area's earliest industries. Beet tops, an industry supported by the college and its associated agricultural experiment station, proved to be an excellent and abundant food for local sheep,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1890.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1890 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232732/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1890.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref> and by the early 1900s the area was being referred to as the "Lamb feeding capital of the world". In 1901 the Great Western sugar processing plant was built in the neighboring city of [[Loveland, Colorado|Loveland]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1900.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1900 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232757/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1900.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref>
[[File:CO Fort Collins 1906 62500.jpg|thumb|The region in 1906]]

Although the city was affected by the [[Great Depression]] and simultaneous drought,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1930.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1930 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232806/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1930.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref> it nevertheless experienced slow and steady growth throughout the early part of the twentieth century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1940.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1940 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232816/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1940.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref> During the decade following [[World War II]], the population doubled and an era of economic prosperity occurred. Old buildings were razed to make way for new, modern structures. Along with revitalization came many changes, including the closing of the Great Western sugar factory in 1955, and a new city charter, adopting a [[council-manager]] form of government in 1954.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1950.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1950 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232822/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1950.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref> Similarly, Colorado State University's enrollment doubled during the 1960s,<ref name = "l1960"/> making it the city's primary economic force by the end of the century.

Fort Collins gained a reputation as a very conservative city in the twentieth century, with a prohibition of alcoholic beverages, a contentious political issue in the town's early decades,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1880.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1880 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232836/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1880.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref> being retained from the late 1890s until student activism helped bring it to an end in 1969.<ref name="l1960">{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1960.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1960 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232830/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1960.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref> During that same period, civil rights activism and anti-war disturbances heightened tensions in the city, including the burning of several buildings on the CSU campus.<ref name = "l1970"/>

During the late 20th century, Fort Collins expanded rapidly to the south, adding new development, including several regional malls.<ref name="l1970">{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1970.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1970 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232841/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1970.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref> Management of city growth patterns became a political priority during the 1980s, as well as the revitalization of Fort Collins' Old Town with the creation of a Downtown Development Authority.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1980.php |title=Fort Collins Time Line 1980 |access-date=March 24, 2007 |work=Fort Collins Local History Archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710232852/http://history.fcgov.com/archive/timeline/1980.php |archive-date=July 10, 2011  }}</ref> In late July 1997, the city experienced [[Floods in the United States: 1901–2000#Fort Collins, Colorado, flood of July 1997|a flash flood]] after and during a 31-hour period when {{convert|10|-|14|in|mm|abbr=on}} of rain fell. The rainfall was the heaviest on record for an urban area of Colorado.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Neil S. Grigg |author2=Nolan J. Doesken|author3=David M. Frick|author4=Mike Grimm|author5= Marsha Hilmes|author6=Thomas B. McKee|author7=Kevin A. Oltjenbruns|title=Fort Collins Flood 1997: Comprehensive View of an Extreme Event|journal=Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management|date=September–October 1999|volume=125|issue=5|pages=255–262|url=http://www.comet.ucar.edu/class/hydromet/09_Oct13_1999/docs/hilmes/asce.pdf|access-date=April 23, 2012|publisher=American Society of Civil Engineers|doi=10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(1999)125:5(255)|issn=1943-5452|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130315144410/http://www.comet.ucar.edu/class/hydromet/09_Oct13_1999/docs/hilmes/asce.pdf|archive-date=March 15, 2013}}</ref> Five people were killed and $5 million in damages were dealt to the city. The waters flooded Colorado State University's library and brought about $140 million in damages to the institution.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort Collins July 28, 1997|url=http://www.assessment.ucar.edu/flood/flood_summaries/07_28_1997.html|publisher=The Weather and Climate Impact Assessment Science Initiative |access-date=April 23, 2012|archive-date=September 7, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060907032110/http://www.assessment.ucar.edu/flood/flood_summaries/07_28_1997.html|url-status=dead }}</ref>