Berthoud, Colorado
Encyclopedia
Berthoud is a Statutory Town in Larimer
and Weld
counties in the U.S. state
of Colorado
. Berthoud is situated north of the Little Thompson River
, approximately halfway between the cities of Fort Collins, Colorado
and Denver, Colorado
along the Front Range Urban Corridor
. The population of Berthoud was 5,042 at the 2010 census.
of 2000, there were 4,839 people, 1,821 households, and 1,331 families residing in the town. The population density
was 1,219.7 people per square mile (470.6/km²). There were 1,883 housing units at an average density of 474.6 per square mile (183.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 93.18% White, 0.23% African American, 0.56% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 3.86% from other races
, and 1.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.06% of the population.
There were 1,821 households out of which 42.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.0% were married couples
living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.9% were non-families. 22.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.12.
In the town the population was spread out with 29.4% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 33.7% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 101.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.7 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $52,672, and the median income for a family was $58,491. Males had a median income of $43,676 versus $29,861 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $25,037. About 1.7% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.8% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.
Berthoud plays host to a small arts community that includes the Berthoud Dance Company, the Berthoud Arts and Humanities Alliance and the Wildfire Community Arts Center, which includes a small blackbox theater. The Wildfire Theater Company is a community theater group that was founded in 2005. It has produced several full-length plays as well as youth productions, including "Brighton Beach Memoirs
" by Neil Simon
(2005), "A Christmas Carol
" (youth production) by Charles Dickens
(2005), "Crimes of the Heart
" by Beth Henley
(2006), "Murder Room" by Jack Sharkey
(2006), and "Proof" by David Auburn.
. Many settlers filed homestead claims, but most bellied up and left the valley to hardier souls who ranched and farmed the arid prairie that straddled the river bottom.
In 1872, a miner-turned-rancher from Central City, Colorado
, Lewis Cross, staked the first homestead claim where the Colorado Central Railroad
planned to cross Little Thompson creek. When the tracks were laid through the valley in 1877 a depot, section house, and water tank were installed at this strategic site. The tiny settlement known as Little Thompson was renamed Berthoud in honor of Edward L. Berthoud
, who had surveyed the rail route through the valley.
Over the next few years the settlement grew to include a handful of homes, a blacksmith shop, a mercantile store, a small grain elevator
, and a log cabin that served as school and church for the community.
In the early 1880s, the Colorado Central Railroad recognized that Berthoud's location on the river bottom caused their steam-powered locomotives to labor excessively to ascend the grade out of the valley. At their urging, during the winter of 1883-84, the buildings of the town were loaded on skids and pulled by teams of draft animals to the town's present-day location on the bluff one mile (1.6 km) north of the river.
Agriculture in the Berthoud area flourished. Farmers diverted water from the Little and Big Thompson River
s into a network of reservoirs and ditches that allowed the arid uplands to be irrigated. Harvests of alfalfa, sugar beets, wheat, corn, and barley were sold on the open market or used to fatten pens of sheep and cattle. The town grew as merchants and shopkeepers set up businesses to serve farmers and ranchers from the nearby countryside.
In 1886, the Welch Addition doubled the size of the Berthoud as town boundaries extended south beyond present-day Mountain Avenue for the first time. A year later a hose company was hastily formed to protect the town from fire after the Davis & Hartford Mercantile store burned to the ground. In 1888 a town board was elected and within a short time they hired a marshal to keep the peace and light the street lamps. By the early 1900s, Berthoud sported a business district on Third Street and Massachusetts and Mountain Avenues.
In the 1920s Mountain Avenue became part of a paved state highway system which would become U.S. Route 287
connecting the larger towns of northern Colorado. In 2007, Highway 287 was rerouted to the north and west of Berthoud, bypassing downtown Berthoud and eliminating Mountain Avenue from the highway route.
).
In June 2007, Aims Community College
purchased approximately 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) of land in Berthoud at Interstate 25
and Colorado State Highway 56, announcing plans to build a state-of-the-art regional campus.,
Larimer County, Colorado
Larimer County is the seventh most populous and the ninth most extensive of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county is located at the northern end of the Front Range, at the edge of the Colorado Eastern Plains along the border with Wyoming...
and Weld
Weld County, Colorado
As of the census of 2000, there were 180,936 people, 63,247 households, and 45,221 families residing in the county. The population density was 45 people per square mile . There were 66,194 housing units at an average density of 17 per square mile...
counties in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. Berthoud is situated north of the Little Thompson River
Little Thompson River
The Little Thompson River is a tributary of the Big Thompson River and thence the South Platte River in the U.S. state of Colorado.The river's headwaters lie in the Roosevelt National Forest. It flows east through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Larimer County through the town of Berthoud,...
, approximately halfway between the cities of Fort Collins, Colorado
Fort Collins, Colorado
Fort Collins is a Home Rule Municipality situated on the Cache La Poudre River along the Colorado Front Range, and is the county seat and most populous city of Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Fort Collins is located north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. With a 2010 census...
and Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
along the Front Range Urban Corridor
Front Range Urban Corridor
The Front Range Urban Corridor is an oblong region of urban population located along the eastern face of the Southern Rocky Mountains in the U.S. states of Colorado and Wyoming. The corridor derives its name from the Front Range, the mountain range that defines the west central boundary of the...
. The population of Berthoud was 5,042 at the 2010 census.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 4,839 people, 1,821 households, and 1,331 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,219.7 people per square mile (470.6/km²). There were 1,883 housing units at an average density of 474.6 per square mile (183.1/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 93.18% White, 0.23% African American, 0.56% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 3.86% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 1.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.06% of the population.
There were 1,821 households out of which 42.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.0% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.9% were non-families. 22.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.12.
In the town the population was spread out with 29.4% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 33.7% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 101.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.7 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $52,672, and the median income for a family was $58,491. Males had a median income of $43,676 versus $29,861 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $25,037. About 1.7% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.8% of those under age 18 and 9.4% of those age 65 or over.
Community
Berthoud is a small town surrounded largely by farmland, nicknamed the "Garden Spot of Colorado." In many parts of town, trees overarch the city streets. There is an annual community parade on "Berthoud Day", which occurs on the first Saturday in June and ends in Berthoud Park, where families gather and enjoy music in a picnic-like atmosphere. Another community event held annually in June is "Berthoud Outdoor Quilt Show", in which quilters display their works in Fickel Park. Fickel Park also is growing a sculpture park with many new sculptures placed each year. The sculptures have brought a new look to the park and the town. Through the summer, the town also plays host to its farmers' market which occurs every Thursday and is sponsored by the town's main street organization. The town has several parks, including Berthoud Park (which has an outdoor swimming pool, playground and tennis court), Fickel Park (which also has a tennis court), and Roberts Lake Park.Berthoud plays host to a small arts community that includes the Berthoud Dance Company, the Berthoud Arts and Humanities Alliance and the Wildfire Community Arts Center, which includes a small blackbox theater. The Wildfire Theater Company is a community theater group that was founded in 2005. It has produced several full-length plays as well as youth productions, including "Brighton Beach Memoirs
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Brighton Beach Memoirs is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, the first chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy. It precedes Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound.-Characters:*Eugene Morris Jerome, almost 15...
" by Neil Simon
Neil Simon
Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...
(2005), "A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
" (youth production) by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
(2005), "Crimes of the Heart
Crimes of the Heart
Crimes of the Heart is a play by Beth Henley.-Synopsis:At the core of the tragic comedy are the three Magrath sisters, Meg, Babe, and Lenny, who reunite at Old Granddaddy's home in Hazlehurst, Mississippi after Babe shoots her abusive husband. The trio was raised in a dysfunctional family with a...
" by Beth Henley
Beth Henley
Elizabeth Becker "Beth" Henley is an American dramatist and actress. She writes primarily about women's issues and family in the Southern United States. She is also a screenwriter who has written many film adaptations of her plays...
(2006), "Murder Room" by Jack Sharkey
Jack Sharkey
Jack Sharkey was an American heavyweight boxing champion. He was born Joseph Paul Zukauskas , the son of Lithuanian immigrants, in Binghamton, New York but moved to Boston, Massachusetts as a young man...
(2006), and "Proof" by David Auburn.
History
White settlers first came to the present-day Berthoud area in the early 1860s, following the Colorado Gold RushColorado Gold Rush
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861...
. Many settlers filed homestead claims, but most bellied up and left the valley to hardier souls who ranched and farmed the arid prairie that straddled the river bottom.
In 1872, a miner-turned-rancher from Central City, Colorado
Central City, Colorado
Central City is a home rule municipality in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties in the U.S. state of Colorado, and the county seat of Gilpin County. The city population was 515 in the 2000 United States Census...
, Lewis Cross, staked the first homestead claim where the Colorado Central Railroad
Colorado Central Railroad
The Colorado Central Railroad was a U.S. railroad company that operated in Colorado and southeastern Wyoming in the late 19th century. Originally founded in the Colorado Territory in the wake of the Colorado Gold Rush to ship gold from the mountains, it eventually expanded from its initial...
planned to cross Little Thompson creek. When the tracks were laid through the valley in 1877 a depot, section house, and water tank were installed at this strategic site. The tiny settlement known as Little Thompson was renamed Berthoud in honor of Edward L. Berthoud
Edward L. Berthoud
Captain Edward Louis Berthoud was a military officer, statesman and engineer in the western United States during the late 19th century. He is primarily known as the chief engineer and secretary of the Colorado Central Railroad during its expansion throughout Colorado in the 1870s...
, who had surveyed the rail route through the valley.
Over the next few years the settlement grew to include a handful of homes, a blacksmith shop, a mercantile store, a small grain elevator
Grain elevator
A grain elevator is a tower containing a bucket elevator, which scoops up, elevates, and then uses gravity to deposit grain in a silo or other storage facility...
, and a log cabin that served as school and church for the community.
In the early 1880s, the Colorado Central Railroad recognized that Berthoud's location on the river bottom caused their steam-powered locomotives to labor excessively to ascend the grade out of the valley. At their urging, during the winter of 1883-84, the buildings of the town were loaded on skids and pulled by teams of draft animals to the town's present-day location on the bluff one mile (1.6 km) north of the river.
Agriculture in the Berthoud area flourished. Farmers diverted water from the Little and Big Thompson River
Big Thompson River
The Big Thompson River is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 78 miles long, in the U.S. state of Colorado.- Course of the river :...
s into a network of reservoirs and ditches that allowed the arid uplands to be irrigated. Harvests of alfalfa, sugar beets, wheat, corn, and barley were sold on the open market or used to fatten pens of sheep and cattle. The town grew as merchants and shopkeepers set up businesses to serve farmers and ranchers from the nearby countryside.
In 1886, the Welch Addition doubled the size of the Berthoud as town boundaries extended south beyond present-day Mountain Avenue for the first time. A year later a hose company was hastily formed to protect the town from fire after the Davis & Hartford Mercantile store burned to the ground. In 1888 a town board was elected and within a short time they hired a marshal to keep the peace and light the street lamps. By the early 1900s, Berthoud sported a business district on Third Street and Massachusetts and Mountain Avenues.
In the 1920s Mountain Avenue became part of a paved state highway system which would become U.S. Route 287
U.S. Route 287
U.S. Route 287 is a north–south United States highway. It is long. It serves as the major truck route between the Texas cities of Fort Worth and Amarillo...
connecting the larger towns of northern Colorado. In 2007, Highway 287 was rerouted to the north and west of Berthoud, bypassing downtown Berthoud and eliminating Mountain Avenue from the highway route.
Schools and education
Students from the area attend the four public schools which are part of the Thompson School District: two elementary schools (Berthoud Elementary and Ivy Stockwell), a centrally located middle school (Turner Middle School), and a high school (Berthoud High SchoolBerthoud High School
Berthoud High School is a secondary school in Berthoud, Colorado. The school boasts a high graduation rate, and over 80% of graduates will go on to higher education. The school had a graduating class of 160 in 2009, and the total number of students at Berthoud averages around 600...
).
In June 2007, Aims Community College
Aims Community College
Aims Community College is a two-year college serving northern Colorado with three campuses in Greeley, Fort Lupton and Loveland. Aims offers more than 160 degree and certificate programs and provides many diverse programs as both day and night classes. Aims was founded in 1967 and the first class...
purchased approximately 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) of land in Berthoud at Interstate 25
Interstate 25
Interstate 25 is an Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway. I-25 stretches from Interstate 10 at Las Cruces, New Mexico, , to Interstate 90 in Buffalo, Wyoming, .Interstate 25 is the main north–south expressway through...
and Colorado State Highway 56, announcing plans to build a state-of-the-art regional campus.,
See also
- Colorado municipalitiesColorado municipalitiesThe U.S. state of Colorado currently has 271 active incorporated municipalities, including 196 towns, 73 cities, and two consolidated city and county governments.-Municipal government:...
- Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical AreaDenver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Areathumb|300px|Map of the 12-county Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical AreaThe Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO Combined Statistical Area is a United States Census Bureau defined Combined Statistical Area located in the Denver region of the state of Colorado...
- Fort Collins-Loveland Metropolitan Statistical AreaFort Collins-Loveland Metropolitan Statistical AreaThe Fort Collins-Loveland Metropolitan Statistical Area is a United States Census Bureau defined Metropolitan Statistical Area located in the Fort Collins and Loveland region of the U.S. state of Colorado. The Fort Collins-Loveland MSA is defined as Larimer County, Colorado. The Census Bureau...
- Front Range Urban CorridorFront Range Urban CorridorThe Front Range Urban Corridor is an oblong region of urban population located along the eastern face of the Southern Rocky Mountains in the U.S. states of Colorado and Wyoming. The corridor derives its name from the Front Range, the mountain range that defines the west central boundary of the...
- Greeley Metropolitan Statistical Area