Fort Collins Trivia
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57 free Fort Collins trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
53 free Fort Collins trivia questions with answers. Fort Collins started as an Army post that never had walls and grew into Colorado's fourth-largest city, a college town of about 170,000 that stayed dry until 1969 and now brews more beer per capita than almost anywhere in the country. This quiz digs into all of it: Camp Collins and the flood that moved it, why the Poudre is called the Poudre, how Horsetooth Reservoir swallowed a town, and which Fort Collins native helped Walt Disney design Main Street, U.S.A. Expect a healthy dose of Colorado State University (Aggies, Rams, the hillside A, the mascot poisoning of 1918) plus the beer chapter: New Belgium, Odell, the Anheuser-Busch plant and the town's long prohibition. There are also questions on the trolley, the MAX line, the 1997 Spring Creek disaster, the balloon boy, and famous locals from Hattie McDaniel to Byron White. It is built for people who live here, went to CSU, or are planning a visit, and it ranges from easy to genuinely obscure. Every answer was checked against a reference page (mostly Wikipedia and the relevant institutional pages), and the explanations add the detail the question left out.
30 of 57 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Fort Collins was founded in 1864 as what kind of settlement?
A U.S. Army outpost
Fort Collins began in 1864 as a U.S. Army outpost, Camp Collins, built to guard the Overland Trail stage route; it never had walls and was decommissioned in 1867.
Q 02Colonel William O. Collins commanded which Wyoming Army post when he authorized the site named for him?
Fort Laramie
Collins commanded Fort Laramie as colonel of the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry; his son Caspar, killed in 1865, gave his name to Fort Caspar near present-day Casper, Wyoming.
Q 03What wiped out the original Camp Collins near Laporte in June 1864, prompting the move downriver?
A flood
A flood on the Cache la Poudre in June 1864 swept through the camp near Laporte, and the garrison rebuilt on higher ground downstream at the site of today's Old Town.
Q 04Fort Collins is the seat of which Colorado county?
Larimer
Fort Collins is the seat of Larimer County, one of the 17 original counties of Colorado Territory created in 1861 and named for General William Larimer; the seat moved there from Laporte.
Q 05In what year did the county seat move from Laporte to Fort Collins?
1868
The county seat moved from Laporte to Fort Collins in 1868, one year after Camp Collins was decommissioned; the settlement's first school had opened in 1866.
Q 06Roughly how many people lived in Fort Collins at the 2020 census?
About 170,000
The 2020 census counted 169,810 residents in Fort Collins, about 170,000, up from 143,986 at the 2010 census.
Q 07Roughly how high above sea level does Fort Collins sit?
4,982 ft
Fort Collins sits at roughly 4,982 feet above sea level, just under a mile high, where the Great Plains meet the Front Range foothills.
Q 08Fort Collins's river is named for a cache of what, buried by French trappers?
Gunpowder
French trappers caught in a snowstorm buried gunpowder by the river to lighten their load; the river's name, Cache la Poudre, means roughly 'hide the powder.'
Q 09The Poudre River empties into which larger river a few miles east of Greeley?
South Platte
The river drops about 6,155 feet between its headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park and its mouth, which is why the current is so swift.
Q 10In October 1986, 76 miles of the Cache la Poudre received which federal designation?
Wild and Scenic River
Congress made 76 miles of the Cache la Poudre a National Wild and Scenic River in October 1986, the first such designation in Colorado; 30 miles are classed wild and 46 recreational.
Q 11How do locals pronounce "Poudre"?
POO-der
Locals say POO-der, an anglicized version of the French poudre; the canyon the river carved runs roughly 40 miles through the foothills northwest of the city.
Q 12Horsetooth Reservoir was built in 1949 as part of which federal water project?
Colorado-Big Thompson
Horsetooth Reservoir stores Colorado-Big Thompson Project water carried east under the Continental Divide through the Alva B. Adams Tunnel, and it is held back by four earthen dams.
Q 13Filling Horsetooth Reservoir drowned part of which small community, whose schoolhouse is still underwater?
Stout
Stout, an 1880s sandstone-quarry town, lies under the south end of Horsetooth Reservoir; residents moved out before the water rose in 1949, and the schoolhouse remains submerged.
Q 21Autism advocate Temple Grandin joined the CSU faculty in 1990 in which field?
Animal science
She earned her doctorate in animal science at Illinois in 1989 and is known for designing humane livestock-handling systems.
Q 22Six-time Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken, one of CSU's most famous athletes, competed in which sport?
Swimming
Amy Van Dyken swam for CSU before winning four swimming gold medals at Atlanta 1996 and two more at Sydney 2000.
Q 23The Oval at the heart of the CSU campus is lined with 65 trees of which species?
American elm
The Oval, laid out in 1909 and 2,065 feet around, is ringed by 65 American elms, a species made scarce in such numbers by Dutch elm disease.
Q 14Which landmark appears in the official seal of the City of Fort Collins?
Horsetooth Rock
Horsetooth Rock, the tooth-shaped pegmatite outcrop crowning the ridge west of the city, is the landmark on the Fort Collins city seal and gave its name to the reservoir and road below.
Q 15CSU was chartered in 1870 under what name?
Colorado Agricultural College
Chartered in 1870 as Colorado Agricultural College, the school held no classes until 1879, when its first term resembled a college-prep academy more than a college.
Q 16In what year did the Colorado General Assembly approve the name Colorado State University?
1957
The General Assembly approved the Colorado State University name in 1957, replacing Colorado A&M; President William E. Morgan argued doctoral graduates deserved degrees from a university rather than an A&M.
Q 17What was the name of Colorado State's first ram mascot, introduced in 1946?
Buck
The first live ram, Buck, arrived in 1946; earlier mascots included a sweater-wearing black bear cub and a bulldog named Peanuts, and the ram was later renamed CAM after a halftime naming contest.
Q 18Students of which school were blamed for the 1918 poisoning of Peanuts, the college's bulldog mascot?
CU Boulder
Students from CU Boulder, the college's arch-rival, were blamed when Peanuts, the bulldog mascot, was poisoned in 1918; alumnus Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic decathlon champion, later donated a replacement bulldog.
Q 19CSU's hillside letter above the old Hughes Stadium site honors teams once known as what?
Aggies
The teams were the Aggies, a nickname from the school's agricultural-college days; students laid out the giant hillside 'A' in their honor in the 1920s.
Q 20What are Colorado State University's official school colors?
Green and gold
Colorado State's official colors are green and gold, worn by the Rams since the school's agricultural-college days; the football field is named for longtime coach Sonny Lubick.
Q 24Which Fort Collins-born Disney artist contributed ideas for Main Street, U.S.A.?
Harper Goff
Goff met Walt Disney in a London model shop in 1951 when both wanted to buy the same model train, and he later designed the Nautilus for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Q 25Along with Fort Collins, which Missouri town inspired the look of Disney's Main Street, U.S.A.?
Marceline
Walt Disney spent part of his childhood in Marceline, while the Fort Collins connection came through a Disney artist who grew up riding the town's trolley.
Q 26Old Town Fort Collins was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in what year?
1978
Old Town Fort Collins was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978; the district's commercial buildings are largely Late Victorian and Romanesque Revival.
Q 27In what year did student activism end Fort Collins' alcohol ban, in force since the late 1890s?
1969
Fort Collins went dry in 1896 and stayed that way until 1969, when a repeal campaign backed by CSU students overturned the ban, decades before the city became a craft-beer capital.
Q 28Kim Jordan co-founded New Belgium Brewing in 1991 with which partner?
Jeff Lebesch
Jeff Lebesch, an electrical engineer and Jordan's husband at the time, began home-brewing after a 1989 bicycle tour of Belgium, which also inspired the Fat Tire name.
Q 29In 1999 New Belgium became the first U.S. brewery powered entirely by what?
Wind
In 1999 New Belgium's employees voted to buy all of the brewery's electricity from wind power, giving up part of their bonuses to cover the premium and making it the first wind-powered U.S. brewery.
Q 30In 2019 New Belgium was bought by Lion, the Australian subsidiary of which Japanese beverage group?
Kirin
Lion, the Sydney-based arm of Japan's Kirin Holdings, announced the New Belgium purchase in November 2019 and completed it in early 2020.