Windsor grew up around the railroad and the sugar-beet factory

Windsor sits near the Larimer County line at the western edge of Weld County, and its early growth is a sugar-beet story.

The town began as a small stop on the route between Greeley and Fort Collins. When a railroad reached the area in the 1880s, it gave nearby farmers a way to ship crops, and the settlement grew into a real town, incorporated in 1890. The bigger change came after a Great Western Sugar Company factory opened in Windsor in the early 1900s. For decades, farmers raised sugar beets in the surrounding fields and the factory processed them into table sugar.

That industry shaped who lived here. Beet farming was hard, hand-tended work, and it drew many German-Russian immigrant families who put down roots in Windsor and across northern Colorado. Their churches, gardens, and community life left a lasting mark on the town’s character. The factory ran until the 1960s, and Windsor has since grown into a much larger community.

Knowing this helps explain Windsor’s old downtown, its heritage buildings, and why it sits where it does. To read the town’s own account, see the Town of Windsor history page, with sugar-industry background from History Colorado.