Fort Collins’ first public works project is open to walk through today. Poudre Landmarks Foundation holds a free open house at the 1883 Water Works on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is the final date on the foundation’s 2026 open house schedule.
Visitors tour the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival pump house and the grounds around it. The foundation describes a 23-acre site with four buildings, two historic irrigation ditches, an orchard that is nearly 100 years old with seven early apple varieties, and one of the largest cottonwood trees in Larimer County. The Rocky Mountain Raptor Program also lists the open house on its calendar and invites people to visit with its raptors there.
This is not billed as a homeschool program. It is a free, drop-in local history stop that works for mixed ages: how a frontier town got clean water, plus room to roam outside.
Know before you go
- When: Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Where: 1883 Water Works, 2005 N. Overland Trail, Fort Collins
- Cost: Free; donations are appreciated
- Reservations: None required
- Ages: Not listed
- Subject: Local history
- Details: Poudre Landmarks Foundation’s Water Works page
More like this: Fort Collins, Free field trips, Free things to do, The Smithsonian at Lindenmeier (Oct. 10), FoCo Fall Fest in Old Town (through Oct. 11), Fort Collins Museum of Discovery group visits
