Town of Erie was originally called Coal Park

The article first appeared in the Broomfield Enterprise.

One of the oldest platted settlements in our region is the town of Erie, originally called Coal Park. In the 1860s, the area along Coal Creek as it meandered across the prairie was settled by a few hardy farmers. These isolated souls were connected only by crude wagon roads and by a stagecoach service along the Cherokee Trail, also known as the Overland Stage Route, which roughly followed today’s Highway 287. Homesteaders made good use of surface coal beds that dotted the plains and some ambitious folks earned a few extra dollars by gathering up the stuff and delivering it to customers by wagon.

Arapahoe City: Lonely marker all that’s left of early Colorado outpost

This article first appeared in the Broomfield Enterprise.

A lonely marker off 44^th Avenue between Wheat Ridge and Golden is all that is left of one of the first towns organized in Colorado. Settled in 1858, the ghost town once called Arapahoe City lasted only about a decade.