VGI Updates

Lamar was founded in Prowers County, along the Arkansas River. Many Volga German families settled in Lamar.

Several Volga German families settled in and around Kirk.

Several Volga German families settled in and around Keenesburg, Colorado.

A trading post was founded on the north bank of the South Platte River. The original trading post was named for Jules Beni, from which Julesburg draws its name.

Those Volga Germans who settled in Greeley came from Frank, Hussenbach, Merkel, Messer, Oberdorf, Pobochnaya, and Schönfeld. Through the years, Volga German immigrants from many other colonies also settled in Greeley and the surrounding area. They settled in “Little Russia” on the east side of town, between the railroad tracks and the sugar factory.

Many Volga German families were employed in the sugar beet industry.  As of 1910, there were 3,699 Germans from Russia laboring in the beet fields of Weld County.

Many Volga German families settled in and near Fruita.

Bernie Waldschmidt served as mayor of Fruita from 1992-1994.

By the early 1900s, Volga Germans from the Russian colonies of Anton, Dobrinka, Frank, Kautz, Kraft, and Yagodnaya Polyana had settled in and around Fort Morgan.

The growth of the sugar beet industry drew many of them to this location on the plains of eastern Colorado.

By the early 1900s Volga Germans from the Russian colonies Frank, Dietel, Dreispitz, Erlenbach, Kautz, Merkel, Oberdorf, Pobochnaya, Rosenberg, Shcherbakovka, and Walter settled in Fort Collins.

With the constrution of a sugar refinery in 1903, Fort Collins became another Northern Colorado link between the sugarbeet industry and Volga Germans. The Fort Collins Colorado Sugar Company brought forty-eight Volga German families to Fort Collins in April 1903.

The town of Eaton is named after Benjamin Harrison Eaton, a pioneer in irrigation that increased agricultural production in the area. With the development of the sugar beet industry in Weld County, many Volga German families moved to the area from Kansas and Nebraska.

The first Volga Germans arrived in the Brighton area in 1886 to work in the sugar beet fields.

By the early 1900s Volga Germans from the Russian colonies Frank, Dietel, Dreispitz, Marienfeld, Oberdorf, Shcherbakovka, and Herzog settled in Brighton.