A flood is the reason Fort Collins sits where it does

Fort Collins did not pick its spot by accident, but it also did not pick its first spot. The city grew out of an Army post, and that post had to move because of water.

In the 1860s, the Army kept a camp along the Cache la Poudre River near Laporte to guard travelers on the Overland Trail. The post was named for a military officer, Lieutenant Colonel William O. Collins. In 1864 a flood swept through and ruined the camp, so the Army rebuilt it a short way downstream. That new location, “Fort Collins,” became the seed the city grew around once the military left and homesteaders and a farming colony platted the town.

The county’s center of gravity shifted too. Laporte had been the first county seat, but in 1868 voters moved the seat to Fort Collins, where it has stayed. So the modern city owes its location to a flood that pushed a fort a few miles down the river.

It is a fitting origin for a county that still takes canyon and river flooding seriously. To read the founding story, see the Fort Collins History Connection and History Colorado.