Buckingham Park

Buckingham Park sits with the banks of the Cache la Poudre River on its western boundary, the innovative and award-winning New Belgium Brewery on its northern boundary, while taking its name from the historic neighborhood to its east and south. The Buckingham neighborhood was built at the turn of the 20th century as a place for the workers of the Great Western Sugar factory. Inhabited for its first 25 years by Germans from Russia, the mid-1920s saw an influx of Hispanic and Mexican workers adding to the changing work force. Buckingham became one of three neighborhoods—Andersonville and Alta Vista the other two—that were built by Great Western Sugar and are more commonly referred to as the Tres Colonias.

The Buckingham Park area was also a popular spot for earlier inhabitants. Chief Friday of the Arapaho and his band lived here before their relocation to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming in the 1860s. Prior to that, many different American Indian groups, dating all the way back to the late Ice Age, are known to have lived in the area.

Today the park provides a place for the local community to play ball, enjoy the natural legacy of the river, and relax with friends and family—a modern continuation of the long history of all the people who have called this place home.