How Gunbarrel Got Its Name
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The first mention of Gunbarrel actually dates from more than a century ago, in the 1860s.
Many years ago, in “Colorado Magazine,” the late Alonzo H. Allen wrote of his childhood
during the settlement of Burlington, now part of southern Longmont. According to Allen,
his father decided to build Burlington near a large cottonwood tree on Saint Vrain Creek.
Allen’s father and another man were returning from the mountains after cutting a set of
house logs. With their horse-drawn wagon, they pulled onto a high point on the plains
(now known as Gunbarrel Hill) where they could look to the east and see the large tree.
“Father, acting as bull-whacker, drove as straight toward the tree as possible,”
wrote Allen. “The heavily loaded wagon cut a deep rut, which was followed by other
teamsters, so that a well-defined road was the result. It was called ‘Gunbarrel Road’
on account of its straightness.”
Long before the creation of the Longmont Diagonal Highway (Colorado 119), the Gunbarrel
Road was the main stagecoach route between Boulder and Longmont. It even made the
newspapers when, in 1891, bicycles came into fashion, and a group of 40 men rode on the
road from Boulder to Longmont in two and one-half hours.
Editor's Credit - This material was quoted from an article by Silvia Pettem, originally
published on February 19, 2004 by the Daily Camera, and is reprinted with her permission.
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page updated 2/21/06
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