Commerce City, Colorado, United States

History | Geography | Economy : Industry | Education

🇺🇸 The City of Commerce City is a home rule municipality located in Adams County, Colorado, United States. Commerce City is the 18th most populous municipality in Colorado. Commerce City is located north of Denver and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. Commerce City is a mixed residential and industrial community that is known for an oil refinery with a capacity of 90,000 barrels per day (14,000 m3/d), operated by Suncor. Dick's Sporting Goods Park, a soccer stadium in Commerce City, hosts the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer.

History In 1859 after fighting in Bleeding Kansas, John D. "Colonel Jack" Henderson built a ranch, trading post, and hotel on Henderson Island in the South Platte River in Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory north of Denver, from which he sold meat and provisions to gold seekers on their way up the South Platte River Trail to the gold fields during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Henderson Island was the first permanent settlement in the South Platte River Valley between Fort Saint Vrain in the Nebraska Territory and the Cherry Creek Diggings in the Kansas Territory. Henderson Island is today the site of the Adams County Regional Park and Fairgrounds.

Among the first establishments in the modern Commerce City were cemeteries. Riverside Cemetery, founded in 1876, is located in the city's south-west corner at East 52nd Avenue and Brighton Boulevard. Rose Hill Cemetery, in the heart of historic Commerce City, was established in 1892 on what at the time was an open plain by the United Hebrew Cemetery Association.

The first school in the area began in 1871 as a one-room schoolhouse, with other schools added in 1899 and later in 1907. This latter school is now part of the North Building at the former site of Adams City High School, now Adams 14 School District Administration Buildings.

Several towns were founded in this part of Adams County in the 19th century. Derby, a Burlington Railroad station in 1887, was laid out as a town in 1889, although it was largely vacated by 1891. Irondale was first settled in 1889, named after a foundry that was opened that year. It was incorporated as the town of Irondale in 1924, but unincorporated in the 1930s due to increasing vacancy. Meanwhile, Adams City was laid out in 1903, with developers hoping the county seat would be established there; however, Brighton was elected county seat in 1904 and Adams City was vacated in 1922.

Until the late 1920s, the area was devoted to agriculture, including wheat fields, dairies, and pig farms. Industry moved in, with a refinery established in 1930 and grain elevators built in the late 1930s. Rocky Mountain Arsenal was founded in 1942 due east of the growing community.

In 1946 and 1947, Adams County School District 14 was formed from surrounding schools, and Adams City was redeveloped about that time. In 1951, as Denver was considering annexing the area, a plan to incorporate all of southern Adams County was developed. In July 1952, area residents voted 251 to 24 to incorporate Commerce Town, comprising neighborhoods such as Rose Hill and southern Adams City. Commerce Town annexed part of Derby in 1962, increasing the population over fourfold, enough for the town to gain the status of a city. The city name was duly changed to Commerce City. In April 2007, the citizens of Commerce City voted more than 2:1 to retain their city's name.

The Mile High Kennel Club, a greyhound racing park founded in 1949, is no longer operational. With the onset of widespread off-track gambling, the physical moving of races around the country to different parks became unnecessary. The City of Commerce City has purchased the land with future development use unknown at this time.

A new Adams City High School has been constructed on land at 72nd and Quebec streets. This was formerly part of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. The new school campus opened in 2009.

Geography At the 2020 United States Census, the city had a total area of 23,295 acres (94.273 km²), including 254 acres (1.027 km²) of water.

Economy: Industry Over 1,400 companies call Commerce City home, ranging from international and national headquarters to small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Commerce City is home to an oil refinery with a capacity of 98,000 barrels per day (15,600 m3/d). Originally, this facility existed as two separately owned refineries, one on each side of Brighton Boulevard.

Suncor Energy bought the west refinery from ConocoPhillips in 2003. A project to upgrade this facility began in August of that year.

Suncor purchased the east refinery from Valero in June 2005 with the eventual goal of combining the two operations. As a result of a lawsuit by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a number of states (including Colorado) alleging violations of the Clean Air Act, Valero agreed in June 2005 to make pollution-reducing changes to its refineries, including the Commerce City facility. Suncor's purchase agreement included an assumption of all liability from this suit.

The west refinery's upgrade project, named "Project Odyssey", was extended to the east refinery. The west plant was shut down in February 2006 to complete the upgrade, while the east plant continued to refine 34,000 barrels (5,400 m3) of oil per day. The completion of the $445 million project was announced in June 2006 and allows Suncor to meet the EPA's mandate to reduce the sulfur content of diesel fuel. It also gives the refinery the ability to process Suncor's Canadian sour crude oil sands. The combined facility is the largest refinery in the Rocky Mountain region.

Education Adams County school districts 27J and 14 serve Commerce City.

Commerce City, Colorado, United States 
<b>Commerce City, Colorado, United States</b>
Image: Jeffrey Beall

Commerce City has a population of over 62,418 people. Commerce City also forms one of the centres of the wider Denver-Aurora-Lakewood Metro Area which has a population of over 3,572,798 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for Commerce City see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Commerce City has links with:

🇨🇳 Nanning, China
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

East of: -104.795

🇺🇸 Parker -104.75

🇺🇸 Greeley -104.698

🇲🇽 Victoria de Durango -104.661

🇲🇽 Durango -104.651

🇺🇸 Pueblo -104.61

🇨🇦 Regina -104.595

🇲🇽 Autlán -104.367

🇲🇽 Autlán de Navarro -104.367

🇲🇽 Manzanillo -104.3

🇺🇸 Carlsbad -104.233

West of: -104.795

🇺🇸 Brighton -104.797

🇺🇸 Aurora -104.798

🇺🇸 Cheyenne -104.817

🇺🇸 Colorado Springs -104.817

🇺🇸 Castle Rock -104.853

🇺🇸 Centennial -104.854

🇲🇽 Tepic -104.883

🇲🇽 Compostela -104.9

🇺🇸 Highlands Ranch -104.93

🇺🇸 Thornton -104.981

Antipodal to Commerce City is: 75.205,-39.883

Locations Near: Commerce City -104.795,39.883

🇺🇸 Brighton -104.797,39.965 d: 9.1  

🇺🇸 Thornton -104.981,39.871 d: 15.9  

🇺🇸 Aurora -104.798,39.66 d: 24.8  

🇺🇸 Westminster -105.017,39.834 d: 19.7  

🇺🇸 Broomfield -105.012,39.954 d: 20.1  

🇺🇸 Denver -104.985,39.739 d: 22.8  

🇺🇸 Arvada -105.076,39.817 d: 25.1  

🇺🇸 Centennial -104.854,39.597 d: 32.2  

🇺🇸 Lakewood -105.069,39.743 d: 28.1  

🇺🇸 Lakewood -105.069,39.743 d: 28.1  

Antipodal to: Commerce City 75.205,-39.883

🇲🇺 Mahébourg 57.7,-20.407 d: 17283.4  

🇲🇺 Centre de Flacq 57.718,-20.2 d: 17265.2  

🇲🇺 Curepipe 57.517,-20.317 d: 17264.4  

🇲🇺 Vacoas-Phoenix 57.493,-20.3 d: 17261.5  

🇲🇺 Quatre Bornes 57.479,-20.266 d: 17257.5  

🇲🇺 St Pierre 57.517,-20.217 d: 17255.1  

🇲🇺 Moka 57.496,-20.219 d: 17254.2  

🇲🇺 Beau Bassin-Rose Hill 57.471,-20.235 d: 17254.1  

🇲🇺 Beau-Bassin Rose-Hill 57.467,-20.233 d: 17253.8  

🇲🇺 Rivière du Rempart 57.633,-20.05 d: 17246.4  

Bing Map

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