Follow along on the map below as you stroll and learn more about some of Fort Collins’ most LEGENDARY residents: 

1. Lee Martinez: Libarado (Lee) Martinez came to Fort Collins with his family in 1906. Lee built the Holy Family Catholic Church and established a scholarship for Hispanic students at Colorado State University. Lee Martinez Community Park is named after him.
2. John B. Romero: John and his wife Inez came to Fort Collins in 1927. He was a prominent community leader in the local Hispanic community and worked in both the railroad and sugar beet industries. His former home, a hand-built adobe house, now houses the Mueso de las Tres Colonias.
3. Franklin Avery: Franklin surveyed many of the streets in the downtown area. He designed avenues to be 140 feet wide and streets to be 100 feet wide. Legend says he designed them this way so horse-drawn wagon teams could turn around without having to back-up.
4. Walter Taft and Louis Taft: The Taft Brothers hauled freight to Fort Collins using oxen-pulled wagons to transport goods across the plains, travelling on average 15 miles a day. A trip from Denver to Fort Collins would take four days!
5. Benjamin “Uncle Ben” Whedbee: Uncle Ben was Fort Collins’ first mayor and the first Treasurer of Larimer County. He started Fort Collins’ first drug store.
6. Charles Clay: The Clay family was one of the most prominent Black families living in Fort Collins in the mid-late 1800s. After arriving in 1864, Charles became a well-known caterer and cook. He ran a church out of his home and hosted many meetings and important social gatherings, such as the local chapter of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Literary Society.
7. Benjamin Hottel and Family: The Hottel family put up $1,000,000 to help build the sugar beet factory once located on E Vine Drive. The Hottel’s monument is the largest private monument in Grandview Cemetery.
8. Elizabeth Keays Stratton: Elizabeth was Fort Collins’ first schoolteacher. In 1866, she taught school in a cabin owned by another legendary Fort Collins resident – Auntie Stone.
9. Joseph H. McClelland: Joseph founded the area’s first newspaper, the Larimer County Express, which later became the Express-Courier and eventually the Fort Collins Coloradoan.
10. 1Elizabeth “Auntie” Stone: Auntie Stone was a cook at the U.S. Army fort located near where the Northside Aztlan Community Center now stands. She helped to start the town’s first flour mill with Henry C. Peterson.
11. Union Soldier Statue: Dedicated on Memorial Day, 1905. The statue cost $1,200 to make – more than $40,000 in today’s money!
12. Fireman’s Statue: This statue, dedicated in memory of deceased firemen, was erected by the Fort Collins Volunteer Fire Department on June 13, 1909. The bell in the foreground comes from the old City Hall on Walnut Street.