Broomfield, Colorado, United States

🇺🇸 The City and County of Broomfield is a consolidated city and county located in the U.S. State of Colorado. Broomfield is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the 16th most populous municipality and the 13th most populous county in Colorado.

History Several railroads figure in the development of this area. The Colorado Central Railroad built a narrow gauge line from Golden in 1873, the Denver, Utah and Pacific Railroad arrived in 1881, and the Denver, Marshall and Boulder Railway built a line through what would become Broomfield in 1886. The Denver, Utah and Pacific was widened to standard gauge in 1889. One of the early names for the area was Zang's Spur, after the railroad spur serving Adolph Zang's grain fields.

The municipality of Broomfield was incorporated in 1961 in the south-eastern corner of Boulder County. While it is unsure how it received its name, most researchers guess it is from the broomcorn grown in the area, a tall sorghum that farmers sold for use as brooms and whisk brooms. Over the next three decades, the city grew through annexations. Eventually, Broomfield spilled into portions of four counties: Adams, Boulder, Jefferson and Weld.

In the 1990s, city leaders felt increasing chagrin with the need to deal with four separate court districts, four different county seats, and four separate county sales tax bases. They began pushing to make Broomfield a consolidated city-county similar to Denver, reasoning that they could provide services more responsively if it had its own county government. They sought an amendment to the Colorado State Constitution to create a new county. The amendment was passed in 1998, after which a three-year transition period followed. On November 15, 2001, Broomfield County became the 64th and smallest county of Colorado. It is the most recently created county in Colorado, and also in the United States as a whole if county equivalents are not included.

On February 20, 2021, United Airlines Flight 328 from Denver to Honolulu experienced an engine failure after takeoff from Denver International Airport and debris from the engine landed in parts of Broomfield. Multiple homes were damaged, but no injuries were reported, and the plane landed safely at DIA.

Geography Broomfield is located midway between downtown Denver and Boulder along U.S. Route 36. The elevation in Broomfield ranges from 5,096 to 5,856 feet. At the 2020 United States Census, Broomfield had a total area of 21,471 acres (86.890 km²) including 371 acres (1.503 km²) of water. It is the smallest county by area in Colorado and the 5th smallest in the United States. Broomfield is the second most densely populated county in Colorado behind Denver.

Airport Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport formerly known as Jefferson County (Jeffco) Airport is located in Broomfield.

Major highways • Interstate 25 • U.S. Highway 36 (Denver-Boulder Turnpike) • U.S. Highway 85 • U.S. Highway 287 • State Highway 7 • State Highway 121 • State Highway 128 • E-470 (tollway) • Northwest Parkway (tollway).

Adjacent counties • Weld County – north-east • Adams County – south-east • Jefferson County – south-west • Boulder County – north-west.

Economy In the 1990s, Broomfield and other area suburbs experienced tremendous economic growth, much of it focused in technology.

The Flatiron Crossing Mall is a large shopping and entertainment centre, anchored by Dick's Sporting Goods, Macy's, and Forever 21.

The Broomfield Enterprise is the local newspaper. KBDI-TV, the secondary PBS member station for the Denver area, is licensed to Broomfield.

Ball, Vail Resorts, MWH Global, Flatiron Construction, Webroot, Noodles & Company, WhiteWave Foods and Mrs. Fields are headquartered in Broomfield.

Top employers According to Broomfield's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city include: 1 Lumen Technologies; 2 Oracle; 3 SCL Health; 4 Hunter Douglas; 5 City and County of Broomfield; 6 Vail Resorts; 7 TSYS; 8 DanoneWave Foods; 9 Broadcom Inc.; 10 VMWare.

Recreation Broomfield's recreation opportunities include the Paul Derda Recreation Center and pool, athletic fields, courts and rinks and open space and trails.

Broomfield has an extensive trail system that connects the various lakes and parks. A scenic trail connects the Stearns Lake and the Josh's Pond on the west side of town. Broomfield also has a 9/11 memorial containing a piece of a steel beam from one of the towers.

Broomfield also has a skate park with many different features such as bowls, a large half pipe and several "street" obstacles.