Granby, Colorado - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Town of Granby is a Statutory Town that is the most populous town in Grand County

Grand County, Colorado

Grand County is the 21st largest of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 12,442 at U.S. Census 2000...

, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Granby is situated along U.S. Highway 40 in Middle Park

Middle Park (Colorado basin)

Middle Park is a high basin in the Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado in the United States. It is located in Grand County, on the southwest slope of Rocky Mountain National Park, approximately 50 miles west of Boulder.-Description:The basin surrounds the headwaters of the Colorado River...

about 85 miles (136.8 km) west of Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

, southwest of Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park is a national park located in the north-central region of the U.S. state of Colorado.It features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra—and easy access to back-country trails...

. According to the population finder off the Census Bureau's website, in 2009, the town had a total population of 1,663.

The town was founded in 1904 along the route of the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway, and incorporated one year later. It was named after Granby Hillyer, a Denver lawyer who later served as the United States Attorney

United States Attorney

United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...

for that city's district.

Geography

Granby is 7935 feet above sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

. It is located at 40°5′11"N 105°56′11"W (40.086396, -105.936487), in an area subject to average annual rainfall of 12¼ inches and annual snowfall of more than 128 inches.

According to the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the town has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km²), all land.

Demographics

As of the census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there are 1525 people in the town, organized into 579 households and 390 families. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

is 856.2 people per square mile (330.8/km²). There are 628 housing units at an average density of 352.6 per square mile (136.2/km²). The racial makeup of the town is 96.26% White, 0.46% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.98% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 1.44% from other races, and 0.52% from two or more races. 3.61% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 579 households out of which 37.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.3% are married couples

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

living together, 7.6% have a female householder with no husband present, and 32.5% are non-families. 21.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 6.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.59 and the average family size is 3.05.

In the town the population is spread out with 28.1% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 33.5% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 6.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 98.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 104.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town is $46,667, and the median income for a family is $55,250. Males have a median income of $35,455 versus $24,417 for females. The per-capita income for the town is $21,224. 5.8% of the population and 4.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 3.9% of those under the age of 18 and 9.0% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

In the news

On June 4, 2004, Marvin Heemeyer

Marvin Heemeyer

Marvin John Heemeyer was a welder and an automobile muffler repair shop owner. Outraged over the outcome of a zoning dispute, he armored a Komatsu D355A bulldozer with layers of steel and concrete and used it on June 4, 2004, to demolish the town hall, a former judge's home, and other buildings in...

, a local businessman and skilled welder, used a 50-ton Komatsu D335A bulldozer

Bulldozer

A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...

he had custom armed and armor-plated (often dubbed by locals and the media as "The Kill Dozer") to damage or destroy several buildings in the town, including its town hall, the public library

Public library

A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...

, a bank, a concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

batch plant, and a house owned by the town's former mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

, resulting in over $7 million in damage. Heemeyer was reportedly upset over a zoning

Zoning

Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...

dispute which he believed led to the closure of his muffler shop; he targeted buildings owned by those involved in his dispute. Nobody was injured in the incident, though Heemeyer committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

when the Heemeyer was unable to free the bulldozer when its treads became stuck inside a hardware store.

Currently the county is facing an epidemic of beetles that have destroyed most of the
conifer forests there.

Local history

Many Granby and Grand County residents are descended from pioneer settlers who arrived before the country was fully surveyed. Early families established themselves under the Homestead Act

Homestead Act

A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....

of 1862, which allowed easy access to land to those who would inhabit and improve upon the territory.

Since the turn of the century, families have contended for prime ranch land. The Huddlers and Cooks are descended from original homesteaders. Their waning ranch once covered approximately 10000 acres (40.5 km²) and was rich in cattle and hay.

Transportation

Amtrak

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...

, the national passenger rail system, provides daily service to Granby, operating its California Zephyr

California Zephyr

The California Zephyr is a long passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the midwestern and western United States.It runs from Chicago, Illinois, in the east to Emeryville, California, in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California...

daily in both directions between Chicago

Union Station (Chicago)

Union Station is a major train station that opened in 1925 in Chicago, replacing an earlier 1881 station. It is now the only intercity rail terminal in Chicago, as well as being the city's primary terminal for commuter trains. The station stands on the west side of the Chicago River between Adams...

and Emeryville, California

Emeryville, California

Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...

, across the bay from San Francisco.

External links

Town of Granby website
Granby Chamber of Commerce website
- CDOT map of the Town of Granby
Greater Granby Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
Sky-Hi News, Granby's local newspaper
Photographs from the Denver Public Library, now kept at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.