Loveland is a home rule municipality and the second most populous municipality in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Loveland is situated north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver and is the 14th most populous city in Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population of Loveland was 76,378. The city forms part of the Fort Collins-Loveland Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. The city's public schools are part of the Thompson R2-J School District.
History
The Loveland area was a hub for French fur trappers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was a trading post and stage station, and the site is now Namaqua Park.
The nearby Big Thompson, Colorado Territory, post office opened on November 12, 1862. The Namaqua, Colorado Territory, post office operated from January 28, 1868, until January 3, 1879.
Loveland was officially founded in 1877 along the newly constructed line of the Colorado Central Railroad, near its crossing of the Big Thompson River. It was named in honor of William A. H. Loveland, the president of the Colorado Central Railroad. The city was founded one mile (1.6 km) upstream from the existing small settlement of St. Louis, the buildings of which were moved to the site of Loveland. The Big Thompson post office moved to Loveland on January 10, 1878, and the Town of Loveland was incorporated on April 30, 1881.), and finally a killer freeze destroyed the industry. By the late 1960s, cherries were no longer farmed at scale, although orchards remained in southeast Loveland and nearby Masonville into the 1990s. In the late 20th century, the economy diversified with the arrival of manufacturing facilities by Hewlett-Packard, Teledyne, and Hach, a water quality analysis equipment manufacturer. A new medical center has added a substantial amount of employment in that sector.
Sundown Town
Loveland was known as a "sundown town." "Sundown towns" were racially segregated communities that excluded non-white travelers from remaining in their borders after the sun set. "The primary purpose of these towns was to enforce racial purity and to create an environment where white residents could live without any interaction with or proximity to Black individuals. These towns used intimidation, threats, and sometimes violence to enforce their unwritten rules that people of color should leave Town before Sundown."
Before 1960, signs welcoming travelers to Loveland read, "“Welcome to Loveland – Elev. 5000 – Nationally Famous Sweetheart Town – Won’t You Stay Awhile – Industrial Opportunities – Diversified Agriculture.” A smaller handmade sign read, “We observe the Jim Crow Laws here.”" According to the 2020 census, the Black population of Loveland makes up less than 1%, and the Hispanic population is 12%.
Loveland has the largest percentage of residents in Colorado who solely identify as white. The city council began discussing racism and equity in 2019, but "[a]fter nearly two years and at least six meetings that prominently featured the issue, almost no action has been taken by city councilors." One resident recalled, "A visiting team didn’t spend the night in the city after the game because they had Black players." All non-white residents were treated with disrespect, not just Black people. A Mexican and Native-American resident whose family migrated to the area stated, "We were recruited for cheap labor and allowed to live here and still treated pretty poorly. That was still more of a privilege than what Black people dealt with … Both are wrong, is what it comes down to." Two people died as a result of the 2013 flooding in Larimer county while 144 people were killed in the 1976 flood, with 5 bodies in the 1976 incident never found.
Geography
The city is located in the Colorado Front Range region at the base of the foothills just east of the mouth of Big Thompson River Canyon at the intersection of U.S. Highway 34 and U.S. Highway 287. Longs Peak and other mountains of the Front Range are visible from much of the city.
Loveland is in southeastern Larimer County. Located south of Fort Collins, its larger neighbor and the county seat of Larimer County, both cities have expanded steadily towards each other. They are considered a single metropolitan area by the U.S. government. The establishment of county-owned open space between the two communities in the 1990s was intended to create a permanent buffer. The northern city limits are now contiguous with those of Windsor, which has expanded westward from Weld County across Interstate 25.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land, and (3.68%) is water.
Loveland Pass, also named after William A.H. Loveland, is not located near the town of Loveland.
Climate
Loveland has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa). Its climate is characterized by warm to hot summer and long and moderately cold winter (sometimes severely). Due to its low annual precipitation, Loveland's climate can sometimes be categorized as cold semi-arid.
Loveland, Colorado has an annual snowfall of .
The hottest temperature recorded in Loveland was on July 19, 2022, while the coldest temperature recorded was on December 22, 1990.
|source 2 = National Weather Service