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35-599: In 1997, the network was started in Larimer County, Colorado , after a flash flood in Spring Creek killed five people and damaged structures in the city of Fort Collins, Colorado , including hundreds of millions of US dollars in damage to the Colorado State University campus. The severity of the flood and its widespread spatial variability surprised meteorologists , and Nolan Doesken,

70-514: A former assistant state climatologist for the state of Colorado, asked for precipitation measurements from private citizens in the area. About 300 responded to his emergency request for data. Said Doesken later: "The results of the data showed that more than 14 in. (36 cm) of rain fell over southwest Fort Collins, the area where the flood waters originated, while less than 2 in. (5 cm) of rain fell only 3–4 mi (5–6 km) east. The enthusiastic interest shown by volunteers and

105-824: A group of Cherokee crossed through the county following the North Fork of the Poudre to the Laramie Plains on their way to California along a route that became known as the Cherokee Trail . The area of county was officially opened to white settlement following negotiations with the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the 1858 Treaty of Fort Laramie , by which time the area was part of the Nebraska Territory . The first U.S. settlers arrived that same year in

140-426: A household in the county was $ 48,655, and the median income for a family was $ 58,866. Males had a median income of $ 40,829 versus $ 27,859 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 23,689. About 4.30% of families and 9.20% of the population were below the poverty line , including 6.80% of those under age 18 and 4.40% of those age 65 or over. Larimer was long a Republican stronghold. Between 1920 and 2004,

175-700: A judge of probate for the First Judicial District of Colorado. During the Civil War , he became a colonel for the Third Regiment of Colorado Volunteers , and after returned to Kansas. After serving as a Kansas state senator from 1867 until 1870, Larimer retired to his family farm in Leavenworth, Kansas, where he died in 1875. He is commemorated in the city he helped found by Larimer Street in downtown, as well as Larimer Square . He

210-527: A letter dated February 1859, he had declared that "I am Denver City." Larimer planned the site and aggressively sold tracts to miners and other migrants traveling through the Rocky Mountains . In the first years, tracts were often traded for grubstakes and in gambling. In 1860, all of the stockholders of Denver City merged with their rivals in Auraria, forming one city under the name Denver. Larimer

245-554: A party led by Antoine Janis from Fort Laramie . Janis, who had visited the area near Bellvue in 1844 and proclaimed it "the most beautiful place on earth", returned to file his official claim and helped found the first U.S. settlement in present-day Colorado, called Colona, just west of Laporte. Nearly simultaneously, Mariano Medina established Fort Namaqua along the Big Thompson River just west of present-day Loveland . The first irrigation canals were established along

280-526: Is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado . As of the 2020 census , the population was 359,066. The county seat and most populous city is Fort Collins . The county was named for William Larimer, Jr. , the founder of Denver . Larimer County comprises the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area . The county is located at the northern end of the Front Range , at the edge of

315-659: Is the Cooperative Observer program of manually recorded daily summaries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are major sponsors of CoCoRaHS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is also a partner. Other organizations have contributed either financially or with supplies and equipment. Many other organizations and individuals have also pitched in time and resources to help keep

350-604: The Colorado Eastern Plains along the border with Wyoming . Larimer County was created in 1861, and was named after General William Larimer . 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

385-682: The Kansas Territory , founding a homestead in Leavenworth where he lived with his wife and nine children. In 1858, Larimer helped found the Denver City Land Company with the intention of creating a new city in the western part of the territory. On November 22, 1858, Larimer arrived at a hill overlooking the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River . The site was across Cherry Creek from

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420-639: The USDA , engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor and recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community are examples of people who use CoCoRaHS data. In or around 2000, the National Weather Service Lincoln, Illinois independently began a similar program, the Significant Weather Observing Program (SWOP). CoCoRaHS data supplements the more rigorous data from

455-546: The president and chief surveyor of the Colorado Central. Likewise, Wellington (founded in 1903) was named for a railroad employee. The Greeley, Salt Lake, and Pacific Railroad arrived three years later as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad , with the intention of creating a transcontinental line over Cameron Pass . Although the line was never extended over the mountains, it opened up

490-640: The 1930s with the construction of the Colorado Big Thompson Project following the Great Depression , sort of a third boom for the agricultural industry around Fort Collins. This project collected and captured Western Slope water, and carried it over to the Front Range Colorado counties of Boulder , Larimer, and Weld , along with extensive water storage and distribution system, which significantly extended

525-685: The Poudre in the 1860s. In 1862 the settlement established by Janis became a stagecoach stop along the Overland Stage Route which was established because of threats of attacks from Native Americans on the northern trails in Wyoming. In 1861, Laporte was designated as the first county seat after the organization of the Colorado Territory . In 1862, the United States Army established an outpost near Laporte that

560-503: The best performance by a Democrat since the days of Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan . In 2020, Joe Biden's margin of victory was even greater. Larimer County is a state-level bellwether county ; as of the 2020 election , it has voted for the statewide winner in every election since 1948 , when Harry Truman carried Colorado without it. Fort Collins is home to Colorado State University . William Larimer, Jr. William Larimer Jr. (October 24, 1809 – May 16, 1875)

595-610: The construction of the large processing plant of the Great Western Sugar Co. in Loveland. In the following decade, the sugar beet industry brought large numbers of German emigrants from the Russian Empire to the county. The neighborhoods of Fort Collins northeast of the Poudre were constructed largely to house these new families. A significant increase in the agricultural productivity of the region came in

630-505: 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. 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

665-503: The county in 1877 when the Colorado Central Railroad extended a line north from Golden via Longmont to Cheyenne . The town council of Fort Collins designated right-of-way through the center of town (and through the campus of the unbuilt college) for the line, creating a contentious issue to this day. Along the new railroad sprung up the new platted towns of Loveland and Berthoud , named respectively after

700-416: The county. The population density was 97 people per square mile (37 people/km ). There were 105,392 housing units at an average density of 40 units per square mile (15 units/km ). The racial makeup of the county was 91.44% White , 0.66% Black or African American , 0.66% Native American , 1.56% Asian , 0.08% Pacific Islander , 3.41% from other races , and 2.19% from two or more races. 8.27% of

735-540: The existing settlement of Auraria , founded by William Greenburry Russell who is credited with starting the Pike's Peak Gold Rush . Larimer staked his claim by laying cottonwood logs along a square-mile parcel of land on the hill. Larimer chose the name "Denver City" to honor the governor of the Kansas Territory, James W. Denver , with the intention that the city would become the county seat of Arapaho County. In

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770-701: The first campus buildings. In 1873, Robert A. Cameron and other members of the Greeley Colony established the Fort Collins Agricultural Colony , which greatly expanded the grid plan and population of Fort Collins. One of the primary goals of the early citizens of the county was the courting of railroads . County residents were disappointed when the Denver Pacific Railroad bypassed the county in 1870 in favor of Greeley . The first railroad finally arrived in

805-874: 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. Ashley ascended the Cache la Poudre River on his way to the Green River in present-day Utah . The river itself received its name in the middle 1830s from an obscure incident in which French-speaking trappers hid gunpowder along its banks, somewhere near present-day Laporte or Bellvue . In 1848

840-678: The great value of the data verified the need for such a service, and CoCoRaHS was born." The program was originally confined to Colorado (the first "Co" in "CoCoRaHS" stood for "Colorado" instead of "Community"), but began expanding to other states, first expanding to Wyoming in 2003, with the last expansion into Nebraska in March 2013. CoCoRaHS is used by a wide variety of organizations and individuals. The National Weather Service (NWS), other meteorologists, hydrologists , emergency managers , city utilities (water supply, water conservation, storm water), transportation departments, insurance adjusters,

875-428: The irrigable growing season and brought substantial additional land under irrigation for the first time. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 2,634 square miles (6,820 km ), of which 2,596 square miles (6,720 km ) is land and 38 square miles (98 km ) (1.4%) is water. As of the census of 2000, there were 251,494 people, 97,164 households, and 63,156 families residing in

910-586: The national program with increased spatial and temporal resolution. Real-time data is also provided by the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP), whose users operate weather stations that automatically report over the Internet, and which supplements the more rigorous data reported by formal surface weather observation stations. The earliest and thus critically important for its long-term historical record from respective locations

945-930: The network up and running. As of 2015, all fifty states , the District of Columbia , and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico participate in CoCoRaHS. In December 2011, the CoCoRaHS Canada network began in Manitoba following a massive flood in that province. As of 2014, the network had expanded to the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, with over 20,000 participants as of March 2015. Larimer County, Colorado Larimer County

980-476: The only Democratic presidential candidate to win a majority of votes in the county was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. However, increasing urbanization, as well as the influence of Colorado State University, caused the Republican margins to decline steadily in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democrat to carry the county with the majority of the vote since 1964, and in so doing recorded

1015-441: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 97,164 households, out of which 31.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.60% were married couples living together, 7.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.00% were non-families. Of all households 23.40% were made up of individuals, and 6.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size

1050-476: The quarrying of stone for the railroad at Stout , furnishing another industry for the region. The brief attempt at the mining of gold in the region centered at the now ghost town of Manhattan in the Poudre Canyon . The early growth of agriculture, which depended highly on direct river irrigation, experienced a second boom in 1902 with the introduction of the cultivation of sugar beets , accompanied by

1085-549: The withdrawal of the Army. By that time, Mason and others had convinced the Colorado Territorial Legislature to designate the new town as the county seat. In 1870, the legislature designated Fort Collins as the location of the state agricultural college (later Colorado State University ), although the institution would exist only on paper for another 9 years while local residents sought money to construct

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1120-400: Was 2.52 and the average family size was 2.99. In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.80% under the age of 18, 14.20% from 18 to 24, 30.70% from 25 to 44, 21.80% from 45 to 64, and 9.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 99.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.20 males. The median income for

1155-608: Was an American businessman, investor, militia general, and politician who is best known as the founder of Denver , Colorado , in 1858. Larimer often went by "General Larimer", having acquired the title in the Pennsylvania Militia . Larimer was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania , and made his first fortune in the railroad industry in Pittsburgh . He became a land speculator in the 1850s in

1190-513: Was designated as Camp Collins . A devastating flood in June 1864 wiped out the outpost, forcing the Army to seek a better location. At the urging of Joseph Mason , who had settled along the Poudre in 1860, the Army relocated its post downstream adjacent to Mason's land along the Overland stage route. The site of the new post became the nucleus of the town of Fort Collins , incorporated in 1873 after

1225-404: Was instrumental in the formation of the Colorado Territory in 1861, and in making Denver its capital. He anticipated being named the first governor of the territory, but was disappointed when Abraham Lincoln gave the appointment to William Gilpin of Missouri , in part as a favor to the governor of the state. After this unexpected turn of events, Larimer became a United States commissioner and

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