Iliff’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 4 old photos of Iliff. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The town was named for John Wesley Iliff, a cattleman who owned a ranch near the town site. Iliff (1831-1878), known as the 'Cattle King of Colorado', arrived during the 1859 gold rush and built one of the largest cattle operations in the American West. By the mid-1870's, he owned approximately 35,000 head of cattle and 15,558 acres of rangeland in northeastern Colorado. He supplied beef to Union Pacific Railroad construction crews, army posts, and mining towns, and was one of the wealthiest men in Colorado when he died in 1878.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Iliff’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Iliff’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewFamily of John H. Children 8, 10,…, 1915: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Iliff, decade by decade
![Eight-year-old girl (see label 4006). She is very skilful [sic] topping the beets, but this work is very fatigueing [si…](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/1708/8ded0fa812254c1dcc31-s.jpg)
![Eight-year-old girl (see label 4006). She is very skilful [sic] topping the beets, but this work is very fatigueing [si…](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/1708/9a5a9995ec27e6a75ba0-s.jpg)
![Eight-year-old girl (see label 4006). She is very skilful [sic] topping the beets, but this work is very fatigueing [si…](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/1708/f0c14b6a40636c57430c-s.jpg)
1990s
Nothing in Iliff is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Iliff has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Powell and Blair Stone Ranch in Iliff, 7.1 miles away.
Iliff and the nearest listed places
Closest to Iliff
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Family of John H. Children 8, 10, 13, 15 yrs. old pulling and picking beets on farm at Iliff[?] Ten members of the fami… (1915) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (2) and the Library of Congress (4). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.