Shannon Crespin, Mayor
303-857-4707
130 South McKinley Avenue
303-857-6694
Fax-303-857-0351
Web Site-www.fortlupton.org
Hours 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday
Administrator-ext. 103
City Clerk-Barbara Rodgers, ext. 101
City Planner-Tom Parko. ext. 128
Finance Director- Claude Hanes, ext. 110
Human Resources-Jeanelle Anderson, ext. 102
Municipal Court-Karen Cade, ext. 105
Permits-Karen Bryant, ext. 107
Public Works-Ramon Hernandez, ext. 127
Sales Tax Licenses-Carol Mitchell,
ext. 109
Water Billing-Donna Pargee, ext. 113
WATER AND WASTEWATER
11285 Highway 52
303-857-9442
203 South Harrison Avenue
303-857-4200
Director- Monty Schuman, ext. 101
Facility Manager-Julie Seedorf, ext. 114
Senior Coordinator-Jean Emslie, ext. 112
Sports Coordinator-John Pryor, ext. 106
222 Clubhouse Drive
303-857-6152
Property Manager & Head Pro-Rhonda Boultelle
Grounds Superintendent-Caleb Kehrwald
Open sunrise to sunset
13750 Weld County Road 12
Office at City Hall, 130 South McKinley Avenue
click
link below to find neat facts about fort Lupton
When
Lieutenant Lancaster Platt Lupton first passed
through this area in 1835, he most certainly
never thought he would return to build a trading
fort. At that time, Lt. Lupton, a West Point
graduate, commanded Company A of Colonel Henry
Dodge’s Dragoons, a select group dispatched from
Fort Leavenworth on a “peace mission” to
persuade Indians in the Rocky Mountain region to
sign treaties with the United States government.
The Dragoons also made extensive contact with
fur traders and visited Bents Fort.
Lt.
Lupton was popular with his men, which incited
jealousy among fellow officers. He was a man
who spoke his mind, and shortly after the
Dragoons returned to Fort Leavenworth the
officers accused him of “speaking disrespectful
words against the President of the United States
(Andrew Jackson).” His words? “Old Hickory
doesn’t show the wisdom of a nit-wit nurse
maid.”
Faced
with a court martial trial, Lt. Lupton resigned
from the Army in 1836. In early 1837, he
followed the “Trapper’s Trail” down the South
Platte River, and, with Mexican adobe artisans,
constructed a trading fort he called Fort
Lancaster. The post flourished as trappers
brought furs and Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Sioux
traded buffalo hides, but by 1843, trading had
slowed. A two week snowstorm in April 1844
decimated the herds of buffalo, and as a result,
trade at the fort dwindled. Lupton, his
Cheyenne wife Thomass, and their children moved
to southern Colorado, then to California, where
he died in 1885.
The
fort was a haven for travelers and was briefly
resurrected in 1859 as a trade center during the
Colorado Gold Rush. Along with prospectors came
farmers who settled fields near the South
Platte, cattle ranchers, and later, coal miners
who worked small deposits west of the fort. The
fort harbored settlers during Indian uprisings,
including one where the teacher in the area’s
first school was killed and scalped, in the mid
1860’s.
The
first post office in what was then known as the
Fort Lupton Nebraska Territory was established
in 1861 within the fort. It became the Fort
Lupton Weld Territory in 1869.
Settlement continued around the area of the
fort, in part because it was an overland stage
stop. In 1882, Fort Lupton was platted
southeast of the fort, and incorporated in 1889.
By
the turn of the century, Fort Lupton was a
thriving agriculture-based community with a
condensed milk plant, cannery and sugar
factory. Seventy five years later,
manufacturing began moving away from the
agricultural roots and the gas and oil industry
began to emerge as the dominant economic force.
The era also ended the last vestiges of the
fort, which had been used as a livestock shelter
and its walls incorporated into a barn. Some of
the walls were still standing in 1885, when an
oil company erected a derrick at the site. The
remaining adobe bricks were moved and stored in
city facilities, but the storage conditions took
a further toll on many of them. They are now in
the care of the South Platte Valley Historical
Society, which was founded in 1988 for the
purpose of rebuilding the fort.
453 First
Street
Phone: 303.857.1634
Hours from 9-4, Monday through Friday.
Closed for lunch and holidays
Curator, Nancy Penfold
Fort Lupton's Museum is an
inviting stop on your tour of the city. Visit
with Curator Nancy Penfold and learn about the
families who have lived in and around Fort
Lupton since 1836, view an extensive collection
of arrowheads, or look at the many photographs
of the city. An added attraction are special
exhibits which change every two months.
130 South McKinley
Avenue
303-857-4011 Police Business
Hours 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday
911-Emergency Dispatch
303-857-3266 Non Emergency Dispatch
Chief of Police-Ron Grannis, ext. 116
Commander-Joe Maier, ext. 115
Code Enforcement-Richard Henry, ext.131
Community Service Officer--Mary Albee, ext.132
"Find a way to help" is the goal of Fort
Lupton's police department's 17 sworn officers
and civilian staff. Officers provide 24/7
patrol, traffic enforcement and criminal
investigations for the city's 7,500 residents,
with aggressive enforcement toward drunk
drivers.
A code enforcement officer enforces the city
animal, weed and trash ordinances, while the
community service officer provides crime
prevention information and advice. The CSO also
offers voluntary fingerprinting services for
local residents. The school resource officer
provides a police presence at the high school
and middle school, assisting staff and students
with advice as well as enforcement.
