Berthoud

History

White settlers first came to the present-day Berthoud area in the early 1860s, following the Colorado Gold Rush. Many settlers filed homestead claims, but most bellied up and left the valley to heartier 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. The Berthoud, Colorado, post office opened on April 4, 1878. 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, several buildings of the town were loaded on wheels 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 Rivers 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…

Geography

Berthoud is situated north of the Little Thompson River, south of Fort Collins and north of Denver in the Front Range Urban Corridor. At the 2020 United States census, the town had a total area of including of water.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  26,006
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  25,643
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  24,059
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  23,226
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  21,258
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  19,556
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  17,501
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  17,342

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2025-06-13
  7 km SE of Erie, Colorado
• M 2.5 — 2020-10-24
  2 km ESE of Georgetown, Colorado
• M 2.9 — 2019-03-30
  7 km NE of Greeley, Colorado
• M 3 — 2016-11-06
  8 km ENE of Greeley, Colorado
• M 2.7 — 2016-11-06
  8 km ENE of Greeley, Colorado
• M 2.6 — 2016-08-23
  2 km SSE of Eaton, Colorado