Fort Collins was founded as a military
outpost of the United States Army in 1864. It succeeded a previous encampment,
known as Camp Collins, on the Cache La Poudre River, near what is known today
as Laporte. Camp Collins was erected during the Indian wars of the mid-1860s to
protect the Overland mail route that had been recently relocated through the
region. Travelers crossing the county on the Overland Trail would camp there,
but a flood destroyed the camp in June 1864. Afterward, the commander of the
fort wrote to the commandant of Fort Laramie in southeast Wyoming, Colonel
William O. Collins,
