Julesburg

Town and seat of Sedgwick County, in the northeastern corner of Colorado; population (2000) 1,500. Julesburg stands on the South Platte River, 5 km/3 mi east of the Nebraska border and 89 km/55 mi northeast of Sterling.

Founded in 1881 at a key railway junction for the transshipment of cattle, Julesburg remains a major agricultural distribution centre. It is also a market centre for a region that grows sugar beet. There is a flour mill and fish hatchery in the town. Julesburg is the fourth town of this name in the area; the original settlement, an Overland Stage and Pony Express station and a notorious haven for outlaws, was completely destroyed in an Indian raid in 1865.