History & Historic Places

Before Longmont was a town

Indigenous peoples lived in and traveled through this region for thousands of years. Cheyenne and Arapaho history is part of the valley’s story. The gold rush and expanding settlement violated treaty rights and led to forced displacement before Longmont’s founding.

1871: The Chicago-Colorado Colony

Longmont began as a planned community, organized by the Chicago-Colorado Colony. Memberships and land purchases helped finance the settlement. William Byers promoted the venture, and Seth Terry helped select its location overlooking Burlington and facing Longs Peak. The new town’s name honored that mountain.

The colony’s organization made shared improvements possible, including irrigation and water systems. Early homes were scattered across the townsite rather than concentrated in one neighborhood. After an 1879 fire, much of downtown’s wooden commercial architecture gave way to brick buildings.

Farms, sugar beets and the railway

The sugar factory built on Longmont’s east side in 1903 became part of Great Western Sugar in 1905. Sugar beets connected local farms to a regional industrial network. The Great Western Railway, developed between 1902 and 1907, carried beets to factories and moved finished sugar and other products onward.

German-Russian, Japanese and Latino immigrants contributed to this economy. The railway also carried passengers, mail and supplies, linking farming communities at a time when roads could be unreliable.

The families behind the harvest

Latino agricultural workers and their families played a central role in growing and processing sugar beets. Men, women and children worked long days in the fields, often facing poor housing and uncertain seasonal income. By the 1930s, more families were remaining in the region year-round, making regular school attendance easier for their children.

These experiences are preserved through photographs, documents and oral histories in the Boulder County Latino History Project.

A Japanese American family’s lasting legacy

The Kanemoto family settled near Longmont in 1919 and farmed sugar beets and vegetables. Brothers Jimmie and George later developed Southmoor Park and donated land for community uses. In 1972, they commissioned the Tower of Compassion in Kanemoto Park. Its five levels represent love, empathy, understanding, gratitude and selfless giving.

Facing difficult history; building a changing city

A Klan-aligned council majority took office in 1923, bringing discrimination and intimidation. Voters defeated all Klan-aligned council candidates in 1927. Acknowledging this history belongs alongside celebrating the city’s achievements.

The FAA’s 1962 air traffic control center and IBM’s 1965 plant announcement helped shift the local economy toward technology. Longmont native Vance Brand flew on Apollo-Soyuz in 1975. The sugar factory closed in 1977; the Museum & Cultural Center’s new facility followed in 2002.