Some Colorado towns are named for forts (Collins, Garland, Lewis, Lupton, Lyon and Morgan) that they were built around. Many communities have Spanish names, and others were replaced with Anglo names. (Denver, for instance, began as Mexican Diggings.)
Some ghost towns have quirky names: Climax, Eureka, Heartstrong, Horseshoe, Red Elephant, Saint Kevin, Tiptop, Troublesome and Zuck. Perhaps residents grew tired of explaining such names and left. These are among the 400 Colorado towns that once had post offices but are ghosts today.
One Colorado city is named for love, and it is thriving, especially around Feb. 14. For Valentine’s Day, Lovelanders voluntarily agree to be cupid’s assistants and send Valentine’s cards to lovers everywhere.
At the Loveland Post Office, an army of volunteer cupids started Feb. 2 stamping love letters and cards with this year’s special postmark of hearts and ribbons from “Valentine Station, Loveland, CO 80538 February 14, 2009.” Loveland has been doing this since 1946 and last year stamped more than 200,000 love notes from all 50 states and 100 foreign countries.
Loveland postmaster Elmer Ivers and Ted and Mable Thompson, managers of Loveland’s now elegantly restored Rialto Theater, started the town’s re-stamping program for the day named for Saint Valentine, a Catholic priest in Rome who was beaten to death and beheaded in A.D. 270. The church subsequently promoted the idea of sending Valentine’s cards honoring the saint as a substitute for the old pagan Roman fertility rite of drawing names of girls for sinful pleasures on Feb. 15, the feast day of Lupercalia.
The Loveland Chamber of Commerce vigorously marketed the town’s Valentine re-mailing program, encouraging people to get their cards stamped with the Loveland postmark featuring Cupid in a cowboy hat. The city installed Valentine cutouts and candy-heart messages on streetlight posts.
All of this would probably delight William Austin Hamilton Loveland, who helped found the town in 1877. Loveland was a promoter, railroad builder and onetime editor of the Rocky Mountain News. He presided over the Colorado Central Railroad, which was built from Golden to Loveland and points north, putting the future sweetheart city on the map.
A sugar beet plant became Loveland’s largest industry, further sweetening its reputation. In recent decades, the sweetheart city has also become a haven for art. In 1984, a group of five nationally known artists — Fritz White, George Lundeen, Dan Ostermiller, George Walbye, and Hollis Williford — launched Loveland’s “Sculpture in the Park” event.
In 1985, Loveland became the first community in Colorado to enact an Art In Public Places Ordinance. This measure designates 1 percent of the city’s capital construction project costing $50,000 or more to fund public art, which is administered by a municipal art commission.
In Loveland, love and art remain a passion, even if Cupid’s love arrows sometimes fly astray.
To get your valentine postmarked in Loveland, address and stamp your card, then put it in another envelope and mail it to Valentines, 446 E. 29th St., Loveland, CO 80538-9998.
