The lost Town under Horsetooth Resovoir
I was looking into old Larimer County history and found out something I didn’t know.
There used to be a whole town where Horsetooth Reservoir is now.
Stout, Colorado was a real community west of Fort Collins. It grew around the sandstone and quarry industry and had houses, businesses, a school, and workers living there.
The thing that caught my attention was the little sign that says:
“Stout - Population 47 ½”
At first I thought that the town was very tiny, but that wasn’t Stout in its prime. The town was much bigger when the quarry industry was active, with hundreds of residents.
People who lived in Stout were still around when it happened. This wasn’t just an abandoned ghost town it was a community of families, workers, and businesses. As the reservoir project continued in the late 1940s, residents left the area, with many of them moving to places like Fort Collins and Bellvue.
When Horsetooth Reservoir was built in the late 1940s, the valley that held Stout was filled with water. The town was already declining, but the reservoir was what buried Stout and its past.
Some buildings were moved before the reservoir was created, while others were removed or lost as Stout disappeared. All that remains in the lake today of Stout is foundations of buildings and small pieces of the past, no intact buildings though sadly.