Sterling (Colorado)

Logan County

08-73935

Sterling is a town in Logan County in the U.S. state of Colorado, United States, with 14,777 inhabitants ( 2010) and the county seat of administration. The geographic coordinates are: 40.63 ° N, 103.20 ° West. The area of ​​the city is 17.8 km ².

History

The first inhabitants in the area of the later Sterling were Indians of any tribe of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Absarokee, Blackfoot, Sioux, Kiowa and Pawnee. The first white men who came to this area were trappers on their way to hunt for beaver on the feet of the Rocky Mountains. At least, if there was no more demand for the animal skins, they moved on, however. Stephen H. Long passed as one of the first explorers in 1820 the region.

Discovery of gold in California in 1849 and ten years later in Colorado led to a substantial increase in the number of people passing through, which reached its peak in the 1860s. The first non - Indian settlers who remained permanently in the area, settled down in 1871 on an island in the South Platte River a few miles south of the present Sterling. This is also a post office was established. In 1881 it was learned that the Union Pacific Railroad would extend its railway line. The inhabitants of the "old " Sterling assumed that, consequently, a city would be built near their settlement. An emissary was sent to Omaha, which the railroad company 80 acres of land with appropriate rights of passage offered against the commitment that a roundhouse and shops were opened in this area. The railway company accepted the offer and Sterling began at its present location, a bit north to develop the first settlement. 1887 Sterling county seat of Logan County.