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Peter Jansen
Lone Tree Creations
Fort Collins , CO
Original studio: FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA
Flagstaff, city, seat of Coconino County, northern Arizona; settled 1871, incorporated as a city 1928. Flagstaff is a tourist resort situated at an elevation of about 2125 m (about 6970 ft) at the base of the San Francisco Peaks. Extensive pine forests are nearby. Manufactures of the city include forest products (especially lumber), paper goods, construction materials, pet food, and clothing. Northern Arizona University (1899) and Lowell Observatory (1894) are here. Prehistoric Native American ruins (including some at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki national monuments) and the scenic Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument are in the area. The city's name is derived from a flagstaff erected here for the 1876 Independence Day celebrations. Population is about 65,000.
THE GRAND CANYON
Grand Canyon is unmatched throughout the world for the vistas it offers to visitors on the rim. It is not the deepest canyon in the world. Both the Barranca del Cobre in northern and Hell's Canyon in Idaho are deeper. But Grand Canyon is known for its overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape.Geologically it is significant because of the thick sequence of ancient rocks that are beautifully preserved and exposed in the walls of the canyon. These rock layers record much of the early geologic history of the North American continent. Grand Canyon is also one of the most spectacular examples of erosion in the world.
Fort Collins was founded as a military outpost of the United States Army in 1864. It succeeded a previous encampment, known as Camp Collins , on the Cache La Poudre River , near present-day Laporte . Camp Collins was erected during the Indian wars of the mid-1860s to protect the Overland mail route that had been recently relocated through the region. Travelers crossing the county on the Overland Trail would camp there, but a flood destroyed the camp in June 1864. Afterward, the commander of the fort wrote to the commandant of Fort Laramie in southeast Wyoming, Colonel William O. Collins, suggesting that a site several miles further down the Poudre would make a good location for the fort. The post was manned originally by two companies of the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and never had walls.
Settlers began arriving in the vicinity of the fort nearly immediately. The fort was decommissioned in 1867. The original fort site is now adjacent to the present historic "Old Town" portion of the city. The first school and church opened in 1866, and the town was platted in 1867. The civilian population of Fort Collins, led by local businessman Joseph Mason, led an effort to relocate the county seat to Fort Collins from LaPorte, and they were successful in 1868.
The city's first population boom came in 1872, with the establishment of an agricultural colony. Hundreds of settlers arrived, developing lots just south of the original Old Town. Tension between new settlers and earlier inhabitants led to political divisions in the new town, which was incorporated in 1873. The first classes at the new state agricultural college were held in 1870.
The 1880s saw the construction of a number of elegant homes and commercial buildings and the growth of a distinctive identity for Fort Collins. Stone quarrying, sugar beet farming, and the slaughter of sheep were among the area's earliest industries. Beet tops, an industry supported by the College and its associated agricultural experiment station, proved to be an excellent and abundant food for local sheep, and by the early 1900s the area was being referred to as the "Lamb feeding capital of the world." In 1901 the Great Western sugar processing plant was built in the city.