Discover the Colorado City That Inspired Disney’s Main Street, U.S.A.
When Harper Goff, an illustrator and production designer for Walt Disney, was asked in 1951 to draw up plans for a section of the company’s new California theme park, he thought back to his childhood home: Fort Collins, Colorado. Established as a military outpost in 1864, the town became a vital stopover for stagecoaches and wagons headed west on the Overland Trail. By Goff’s era, Fort Collins had transformed into a quintessential American town — and its captivating Romanesque and Classical Revival buildings served as perfect inspiration for Disneyland.