Frequently Asked Questions

National Heritage Areas (NHAs) are designated by Congress as places where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape. Through their resources, NHAs tell nationally important stories that celebrate our nation’s diverse heritage. NHAs are lived-in landscapes. Consequently, NHA entities collaborate with communities to determine how to make heritage relevant to local interests and needs. 

NHAs are grassroots, community-driven approach to heritage conservation and economic development. Through public-private partnerships, NHA entities support historic preservation, natural resource conservation, recreation, heritage tourism, and educational projects. Leveraging funds and long-term support for projects, NHA partnerships foster pride of place and an enduring stewardship ethic. 

National Heritage Areas appeal to all ages and interests. Some have opportunities for walking, hiking, biking, and paddling. Some have festivals to attend and museums to visit. Many Areas provide volunteer opportunities, group tours, and multiple-day excursions and can also be visited in combination with over 80 units of the National Park Service.

National Heritage Areas further the mission of the National Park Service (NPS) by fostering community stewardship of our nation’s heritage. The NHA program, which currently includes 62 heritage areas, is administered by NPS coordinators in Washington DC and seven regional offices – Anchorage, Seattle, Oakland, Denver, Omaha, Philadelphia, and Atlanta – as well as park unit staff. 

NHAs are not national park units. Rather, NPS partners with, provides technical assistance, and distributes matching federal funds from Congress to NHA entities. NPS does not assume ownership of land inside heritage areas or impose land use controls.

The Cache la Poudre National Heritage Area (Cache NHA) is a congressionally designated place where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape. The Cache la Poudre River has been the life line to settlement in a mountainous desert region. The legacy of human presence in Northern Colorado exceeds more than 13,000 years of indigenous peoples living in, and migrating through, this unique eco-tone where the plains meet the mountains. The heritage area celebrates the vital role this region of Colorado played in the development of Western water law and the evolution of complex agricultural irrigation systems.  

We embrace the importance of culture to the people and places along the Cache la Poudre River and the inclusive nature of telling the stories of all people. The Cache NHA strives to promote a variety of historical and cultural opportunities, engage visitors and residents in the landscape, and inspire learning, preservation, recreation, and stewardship through various programming efforts.

The Cache la Poudre River National Heritage area extends for 45 miles and includes the lands within the 100-year flood plain of the Cache la Poudre River. It begins in Larimer County at the eastern edge of the Roosevelt National Forest and ends east of Greeley, ¼ miles west of the confluence with the South Platte.

The Poudre Heritage Alliance was formed as a non-profit organization in 2002 with the goal to build a deeper understanding of the Poudre River’s national significance including its role in influencing water development, water law, and water management. The PHA conducted studies of the heritage area, developed a management plan, and championed congressional designation.  

PHA was designated by congress as the management entity of the Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area.  

Mission Statement: The Poudre Heritage Alliance serves the Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area, providing current and future generations the opportunity to understand and celebrate the area by careful planning and facilitation of educational programs and related amenities in collaboration with residents, private sector, and government entities. 

1. Organizational capacity: Maintain and enhance the capacity of the Poudre Heritage Alliance (PHA) to accomplish its mission as the administering entity of the CALA.
2. Story telling: Tell the story of the Cache la Poudre River through interpretive amenities, educational programs and research projects that broaden public awareness of the heritage area, thereby enhancing its sense of place and strengthening its value to the community.
3. Striking a balance: Encourage a balance within the heritage area between the preservation of natural, cultural and economic resources, public access to the Cache la Poudre River, and the rights of private property owners to the use and enjoyment of their lands.
4. Planning for tourism: Develop and promote the heritage area as a premiere nature and heritage tourism destination and a resource for local and regional economic development.

In 1986 Congress designated the Upper Cache La Poudre River as a Wild and Scenic River encompassing 75 miles of river above the community of Poudre Park, northwest of the city of Fort Collins. A decade later in 1996, the Cache la Poudre River Corridor Act – Public Law 104-323, established the Corridor providing for the interpretation of the “unique and significant contributions to our national heritage of the cultural and historic lands, waterways and structures within the corridor.” In the spring of 2001 revised technical corrections bills were introduced in both houses of Congress, S. 903 and H.R. 1880, but as of December 2002, the issue of technical corrections had not been resolved.  

The Poudre Heritage Alliance worked with the National Park Service to launch five separate studies of the heritage area funded through the Cooperative Ecosystem Study Unit program, from winter 2001 to summer 2002. 

The funded studies included the following: 

1) inventory of water-related resources;
2) analysis of evolution of landscape;
3) formulation of management alternatives for the corridor (started late 2001);
4) interviews with long-time residents of Weld and Larimer Counties; and
5) study of evolution of the water-delivery system along the river. 

In March of 2003, the Poudre Heritage Alliance began work on a management plan, holding a series of public open houses in Greeley, Fort Collins, and Windsor. On March 30, 2009, the revised legislation was finally passed by Congress officially activating the Cache la Poudre River as a National Heritage Area.  

Pronounced, Kash la POO-der, Cache la Poudre is French for, “Hide the Powder.” The most accepted story of the Poudre River’s name is from November 1836 when a group of fur trappers were stranded in a snowstorm near the banks of the river and the wagon boss ordered the men to lighten the load by stashing supplies so they could continue their journey to Green River, WY. A large part of the goods was gun powder, hence the name “Cache la Poudre.” 

– Summarized from the Fort Collins History Connection.

At the Cache la Poudre National Heritage Area, we promote opportunities for student learning, storytelling, river safety initiatives, visitor wayfinding, historic preservation, oral history documentation, conservation, and a variety of family friendly events and activities along the river and its trail system. We facilitate and promote partnerships throughout our region.  Community grants are awarded for preservation, interpretation, and development activities that celebrate the heritage and culture of the Heritage Area. In the past decade we have invested over half a million dollars in community grants and leveraged nearly $14 million dollars of public-private funding. 

An economic impact study completed by Tripp Umbach in 2017 found that the Cache la Poudre National Heritage Area generates an annual economic impact of $81.6 million, while supporting over 1,000 jobs and generating $6.9 million in tax revenue.  

To learn more about our community impact, you can read our annual impact reports or about projects we’ve funded through our community grant program.

National Heritage Areas (NHA) are places where historic, cultural, and natural resources combine to form cohesive, nationally important landscapes.  Unlike national parks, NHAs are large lived-in landscapes. NHA entities collaborate with communities to determine how to make heritage relevant to local interests and needs. National Heritage Areas are a proven model of shared responsibility resulting in a cost-effective approach for the National Park Service to preserve, protect, and share the significant stories of America. 

We accomplish this through grass-roots coordination with local jurisdictions, non-profits, and other private partners to invest in nationally significant sites that in turn spur regional economic development. There are no real, implied, or intended additional restrictions on local land use regulation generated by NHA designation. And NHA designation does not confer any land use authority. 

The Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area does not own nor manage land within our Heritage Area. Rather, we strive to promote a variety of historical and cultural opportunities, engage visitors and residents in the landscape, and inspire learning, preservation, recreation, and stewardship through various programming efforts. For this reason, we do not typically take sides on land use within our heritage area and messaging that indicates otherwise is misaligned with our organization.

From an archaeologist’s perspective, the legacy of human presence in Northern Colorado exceeds more than 13,000 years of indigenous peoples living in, and migrating through, this unique eco-tone where the plains meet the mountains. From about 8,000 years ago, people hunted and gathered most of the animals and plants found today, with some minimal agricultural components.  

Tribal groups as we know them today are not recognized as being present until 1,000 A.D., if not longer, beginning with the Numic (Uto-Aztecan) speakers, commonly known as the Ute. Oral tradition and the ethno-historic record show evidence of other tribal groups like the Apache, Comanche, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Lakota, Shoshone, and Pawnee in Colorado as early as the mid-17th century. 

In 1868, the last of the Native Americans, Friday, and his band of Arapahos, were removed to Wyoming with the Federal government mandating by 1878 the removal of all Native people to designated reservations. Except for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, all others were located outside of Colorado. Combined with other assimilation policies, conversion to Christianity, restriction to boarding schools, and the outlawing of most Native American ceremonies, there was a tremendous loss of cultural knowledge and traditions. 

Compiled by Dr. Brenda Martin, Curator, Fort Collins Museum, May 2009

We acknowledge that the Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area spans the usual and accustomed lands of many tribes who play a major role in the history of our state. We honor and pay our respect to our Indigenous neighbors who protect and preserve these lands and waterways, as they have since time immemorial.