Did You Know? A Railroad Employee is Responsible for Wellington’s Name
Welcome to the fifth and final installment of my thrilling investigation into how the cities of Northern Colorado got their names.
Yesterday, we uncovered the origin of Windsor. Today, we're exploring the farthest north of our NoCo towns: Wellington.
Like pretty much every single town on the Front Range, Wellington exists because it was an easy place for settlers to stop and chill during their Manifest Destiny shenanigans, due to its status as the halfway point between Cheyenne and Fort Collins.
This led to it becoming a small-town hub for oil, coal, and agriculture throughout the 1800s before it was established as a town in 1902, according to the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce.
The town gets its name from a man named C.L. (Charles) Wellington, an employee of the Colorado and Southern Railroad. Unfortunately, C.L. Wellington isn't even cool enough to have his own Wikipedia page, so no one really knows why he got a town named after him. Or what his middle initial stands for.
The actual town of Wellington is pretty cool though. It served as a secret drinking location during the prohibition and became a hip small town with unique restaurants, homes, and churches that make up its present-day Old Town.
And unlike Denver, Wellington is actually looking for more people to move there and expand. With one-third of the area still undeveloped, there is room for the town to grow more than 13 square miles.
The Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce even insists their "welcome mat is out." You hear that, Californians?