Julesburg, CO

Julesburg is the Sedgwick County seat on the north side of the South Platte River, along US 138 and US 385 just off I-76. Its name comes from Jules Beni, whose trading post stood on the Platte and later served the Overland Trail and Pony Express. The town is known locally for moving: there were four Julesburg sites as the settlement shifted from the river, around Fort Rankin and Fort Sedgwick, and finally toward the Union Pacific railroad junction. The current town grew around that rail connection.

ATTRCoemgenus at en.wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0

The early years were not a clean frontier postcard. In January 1865, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota warriors attacked Julesburg in retaliation after the Sand Creek massacre; the settlement was burned and rebuilt. Today the Fort Sedgwick Depot Museum and the 19-mile South Platte River Trail connect that history to the present, with markers for Pony Express stops, Fort Sedgwick, the railroad, and the Lincoln Highway. Julesburg School District and the county courthouse keep the town's civic center current. The local scoop is a county seat that moved four times before finding its rail-and-river footing.