In Indian Territory in 1836, a fur trading post built with adobe bricks was established by Lancaster Lupton. He first named his trading post-Fort Lancaster and then renamed it Fort Lupton circa 1844. Trading with Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and mountain men, the fort was taken over in 1846 by the Bent brothers, owners of Bent’s Fort near present-day La Junta, Colorado. The fur trade was dwindling by the late 1840s, and the fort was abandoned.
Beginning in 1859, the Colorado gold rush brought settlers to the South Platte River Valley. Some settled near where the remains of Lupton’s fort stood. In 1861, the Town of Fort Lupton’s first post office was established, and irrigation ditches were constructed, watering dozens of farms. Fort Lupton maintained a stagecoach station until 1870 when it was superseded by the railroad. In 1879, William G. Winbourn persuaded railroad representatives to extend a sidetrack to the center of his land that included old Fort Lupton. In 1881, Winbourn established the town of Fort Lupton by the railroad sidetrack a mile south of the original fort.
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Source: Weld County 150, City of Greeley Museums staff, Nancy Lourine Lynch.