Milestones: Town of Erie

The little town of Erie – a bedroom community to the larger cities around it these days – was built on coal and railroads.

Miner and minister R.J. Van Valkenburg and his family settled in the fledgling settlement in 1867, naming it after his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Over the years, Valkenburg also founded the Methodist Church, and served as the town’s mayor, its postmaster, its justice of the peace and its school board president, according to the Town of Erie Historic Preservation Board.

At the same time in the late 1880s, officials at Union Pacific Railroad were deciding to cross the Rocky Mountains through Wyoming, bypassing the rough mountain terrain of Berthoud Pass in Colorado. It was a decision that would heavily impact towns up and down the Front Range, with railroad traffic driving growth.

The 106-mile link between Denver and Cheyenne was incorporated as the Denver Pacific Railway, which was built with bonds sold to people in Denver and in Arapahoe County. The Denver-Pacific Spur Railroad offered passenger service to Erie and freight service carrying coal as far east as Kansas City.

Coal already had been discovered in a hillside just east of Erie in 1866. More mines opened quickly, including the Briggs Mine in 1871. At one point, Briggs was the largest commercial mine in the state.

With the growth in coal mining also came strife.

In 1877, the first coal miners’ strike at the Boulder Valley Mine in Erie brought outside troops to town to keep the peace. Explosives were set off in front of the mine, and troops built a six-sided fort on a nearby hillside, according to History Colorado, formerly known as the Colorado Historical Society. The unrest became known as the “Erie War” among local residents.

By 1879, problems between the miners and Union Pacific Railroad workers got so bad that the railroad decided to leave Erie, moving its operations office to Hanna, Wyoming.

But town residents continued to move forward in other ways.

They built the first Lincoln School building in 1881 – a four-room frame building at the corner of Wells and Holbrook streets. About 100 students enrolled in the school.

The frame building was later moved from the site so a larger school could be built in 1906. The new brick school building opened to students in January 1907.

That building soon was too small. In 1920, four additional rooms were built on the north end of the building to handle all of the students.

The town’s first church was built in 1883. It was named the Welsh Presbyterian Church featuring services conducted in Welsh for immigrant miners. By 1988, a United Methodist Church was built, so the previous Presbyterian Church building was moved across the street to become the church activity center.

A flood hit Erie hard in 1890, forcing many town residents to rebuild.

The town continued to grow, based mostly on the commerce from the mines.

In 1928 and 1929, the original Erie High School was built. It was renovated over the years and now serves as the town’s middle school.

Through the 1940s and the 1950s, demand for coal declined and many of the mines closed in Erie.

In 1966, the Lincoln School building was abandoned for the new Erie Elementary School on County Line Road.

The Lincoln School building was resurrected in the 1990s. After a renovation that ended in 1998, the Erie Town Hall was moved into the building. At the same time, the original Erie Town Hall was renovated in 1995 and now houses the Erie Chamber of Commerce.

Reflecting Erie’s growing prominence in its relationship to the communities around it, the Erie Municipal Airport neighborhood was annexed into the town in 1979. Other neighborhoods were built in recent decades, many of them filled by residents who commute to nearby towns and to Denver for work.

Erie residents continued to push to modernize the town, finishing a street paving project in 2000. That same year, a coal miner statue and memorial was placed in front of the Erie Town Hall to remember the coal miners that worked so hard during the town’s early years.

The Erie Museum – Wise Homestead was opened by Erie Historical Society members in 2007 in a farmhouse built by homesteader Oliver Wise in 1869. The Wise home offers displays showing visitors how typical farmhouses operated on the Colorado Front Range in the late 1800s.

In recent years, the town has continued to add amenities for its residents, opening a 20,000-square-foot library in 2008, along with a 63,000-square-foot community and recreation center. The recreation center features a lap pool, a water slide and spray features.

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