Junction Station, the first settlement at this site, suffered numerous Indian attacks similar to those that raged all along the South Platte during the mid 1860s. To protect the crucial crossroads, which joined the South Platte River Trail with its Denver cutoff, the U.S. Army established Camp Junction in 1864. In 1866 Fort Morgan, roughly the size of a city block, was completed. The post defended the trail, but traffic soon shifted north to the transcontinental rail corridor, and Fort Morgan was abandoned in 1868. Sixteen years later Abner S. Baker founded the present-day town and named it after the old battle station. Today one of eastern Colorado's most important cities, Fort Morgan has anchored life on the plains for more than a century.

Rainbow Arch Bridge
From the day of its opening in August 1923, Rainbow Arch Bridge drew praise for its visual elegance; when, twelve years later, it withstood a devastating flood with nary a shudder, the span gained fame for its sturdiness, too. The first bridge to employ James B. Marsh's popular open-spandrel design, Rainbow Arch survived a second flood in 1965, but its narrow roadway couldn't keep up with the rising tide of Fort Morgan's traffic. City officials reluctantly closed the beloved structure in 1987, but after a five-year rehabilitation effort Rainbow Arch reopened to pedestrians and bicyclists in 1996. Now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the 1,100-foot bridge remains one of the longest and grandest of its type.

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Show me all markers in:  Fort Morgan, CO  |  Morgan County  |  80701  |  Colorado  |  United States of America

Watching River Wildlife
Sugar Beets
Rainbow Arch Bridge
Old Fort Morgan
Fort Wicked
Battle of Summit Springs
Cornish Grade School
William Shaw Hadfield
"Dinkey Engine"
Valley Station

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