Fort Collins Stories

I can’t remember the first time I saw a train come through downtown, but I doubt it compares to this excerpt from “Talking About Fort Collins: Selections from Oral Histories,” a joint project of The Friends of the Library and the Local History Department of the Fort Collins Public Library (1992). Transcripts of the oral histories are also available at Fort Collins History Connection.

“I remember the first time I ever seen a train. I was eight years old the first time I ever went to town…A passenger train come through there on Mason Street, heading south, and he blowed the whistle for that crossing. Of course, it was a steam train, and it scared (the) team, but it didn’t scare them near as bad as it did me. We had a big old high wagon seat, and I got off that seat; boy, that was the biggest thing I ever seen. If it had been coming down the street sideways, it wouldn’t have looked no bigger to me. Boy, I remember that.

"Well, we got squared around and started home and got almost home, about half a mile from a hill we had to pull, and dad had to stop and rest the team. I got off and I run the length of that thing to get home and tell the folks I seen a train. I never will forget that.”--Earl “Red” Miller, 1974

Mystery Photo:
Last week's photo was of artist Joe McGrane's Red Pony (2000), which is found at English Ranch Park.


















Where in Fort Collins was this week's picture taken?



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