Orchard City Colorado
Orchard City is the 2nd largest municipality in Delta County, and is the area which encompasses three little towns – Austin, Eckert and Cory. Together, they are the community known as Orchard City. Ever since the turn of the last century, around 1900, the three small towns stood together. To the north was the town of Cedaredge. The entire group of little towns was comprised of mostly orchards growing apples, peaches, apricots, cherries and pears. Because the railway came through Austin, the shipping of the produce and all the related businesses were centralized there. But there was no Orchard City… yet.
More Town Facts
| Region: Southwest | County: Delta | |
| Latitude: 38.816360 | Longitude: -107.976951 | Elevation: 5,446 ft (1,660 m) |
By 1910 there were stores, a bank, and a canning factory in Austin, and it outgrew it’s neighbors by a considerable margin. Eckert had the subdivision and school and Cory had a Post Office and general store. All three were small, unincorporated towns, but a problem in 1910-11 with unsafe drinking water making the families in the area sick was the turning point for a big change. The untreated ditch water was fine for irrigation, but not drinking water, so the people from Austin and Cedaredge got together and planned the first domestic water pipeline for the community. The only problem was acquiring the money to build it, and in order to bond the project there needed to be an incorporated town. After much discussion, many problems and a year and a half of work, a new combined town was decided upon. Orchard City was born with voter approval on May 11, 1912 with 425 residents, a mayor and Board of Trustees. It still took the new group until 1916 to complete the line for Orchard City to have clean water, but the project was critical for the residents of the area. The three original towns today stand separate but also combine to make one common entity… Orchard City. A special thanks to Tom Huerkamp, Mayor of Orchard City, who provided all the historical information.
