The Loveland area was a hub for French fur trappers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was a
trading post and
stage station, and the site is now Namaqua Park. The nearby
Big Thompson, Colorado Territory, post office opened on November 12, 1862. The
Namaqua, Colorado Territory, post office operated from January 28, 1868, until January 3, 1879. Loveland was officially founded in 1877 along the newly constructed line of the
Colorado Central Railroad, near its crossing of the
Big Thompson River. It was named in honor of
William A. H. Loveland, the president of the Colorado Central Railroad. The city was founded one mile (1.6 km) upstream from the existing small settlement of St. Louis, the buildings of which were moved to the site of Loveland. The Big Thompson post office moved to Loveland on January 10, 1878, and the Town of Loveland was incorporated on April 30, 1881.), and finally a killer freeze destroyed the industry. By the late 1960s, cherries were no longer farmed at scale, although orchards remained in southeast Loveland and nearby Masonville into the 1990s. In the late 20th century, the economy diversified with the arrival of manufacturing facilities by
Hewlett-Packard,
Teledyne, and
Hach, a
water quality analysis equipment manufacturer. A new
medical center has added a substantial amount of employment in that sector.
Sundown Town Loveland was known as a
"sundown town." "Sundown towns" were racially segregated communities that excluded non-white travelers from remaining in their borders after the sun set. "The primary purpose of these towns was to enforce racial purity and to create an environment where white residents could live without any interaction with or proximity to Black individuals. These towns used intimidation, threats, and sometimes violence to enforce their unwritten rules that people of color should leave Town before Sundown." Before 1960, signs welcoming travelers to Loveland read, "“Welcome to Loveland – Elev. 5000 – Nationally Famous Sweetheart Town – Won’t You Stay Awhile – Industrial Opportunities – Diversified Agriculture.” A smaller handmade sign read, “We observe the
Jim Crow Laws here.”" According to the 2020 census, the Black population of Loveland makes up less than 1%, and the Hispanic population is 12%. Loveland has the largest percentage of residents in Colorado who solely identify as white. The city council began discussing racism and equity in 2019, but "[a]fter nearly two years and at least six meetings that prominently featured the issue, almost no action has been taken by city councilors." One resident recalled, "A visiting team didn’t spend the night in the city after the game because they had Black players." All non-white residents were treated with disrespect, not just Black people. A Mexican and Native-American resident whose family migrated to the area stated, "We were recruited for cheap labor and allowed to live here and still treated pretty poorly. That was still more of a privilege than what Black people dealt with … Both are wrong, is what it comes down to." Two people died as a result of the 2013 flooding in Larimer county while 144 people were killed in the 1976 flood, with 5 bodies in the 1976 incident never found. ==Geography==