Limon, Colorado

Limon (pronounced /ˈlaɪmən/ LYE-mən) is a statutory town in Lincoln County, Colorado, United States. Its population was 2,043 at the 2020 United States census, the most populous municipality of the county. Limon lies at the intersection of Interstate 70, U.S. Highways 24, 40, 287, and Colorado Highway 71, leading it to be dubbed the "Hub City" of eastern Colorado.

Railroads were the major factor for Limon's original founding and location. The Kansas Pacific Railroad made its way across the plains from southern Kansas following the Smoky Hill Trail in 1870. In 1888, the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad (now the Kyle Railroad) made its way west to east from Colorado Springs, entering Lincoln County and intersecting the Kansas Pacific (now Union Pacific) at the present day location of Limon. This union of the two railroads was the earliest founding of the "Hub City".^{[citation needed]}

Limon was the site of a lynching on November 16, 1900. Preston Porter Jr., a fifteen-year-old African-American male, had confessed under duress to the murder of eleven-year-old Louise Frost who was Caucasian. Porter was apparently being held some 90 miles away in Denver, but was sent back to Limon by request of unspecified people and against the wishes of Sheriff Freeman. When the train carrying Porter stopped in Limon, sixteen men selected from a mob of 300 "marked by calmness and determination" took Porter from Freeman's custody despite the sheriff's protestations "in the name of law." Originally it was announced that Porter would be hanged but many in the crowd including R. W. Frost, the girl's father, objected "that such a death would be too easy." The method was left to Frost who decided upon burning at the stake. Frost also refused to allow mutilation of Porter's body before burning. While waiting for his execution, Porter sat next to a bonfire reading the Gospel of Luke from the Bible. Porter was chained to an iron railroad rail set in the ground on the exact spot where the murder had taken place and burned to death, the match to start the fire being set by the girl's father. Lynchings of this type were apparently rare, as reporters on the scene wrote: "The general sentiment expressed approves the execution of the negro, but deprecates the method adopted."

On June 6, 1990, an F3 tornado touched down near Matheson (about 16 miles west of Limon), tearing roughly east-northeast through fields. Minutes later, the then rain-wrapped tornado arrived, devastating the city. The storm injured 14 people, but remarkably no one was killed. Most of Limon's business district had been laid to ruins in just moments.

Governor Roy Romer declared Limon a disaster area the next day.

Limon successfully rebuilt its business district adding streetscaping, a new Town Hall, relocating a medical clinic and Limon Memorial Library, creating Hub City Senior Center and a new fire station. Downtown Limon is now a thriving center of the community demonstrating the strength of this rural community.

Limon is located at 39°15′50″N 103°41′32″W / 39.26389°N 103.69222°W / 39.26389; -103.69222 at an elevation of 5,377 feet (1,639 m). Although entirely in Lincoln County, Limon is located immediately east of the Elbert County line. It lies on the north side of Big Sandy Creek, a tributary of the Arkansas River, on the eastern edge of the Colorado Piedmont region of the Great Plains, and is near the eastern end of the Palmer Divide. Located in east-central Colorado at the junction of Interstate 70, U.S. Highway 287, U.S. Highway 40, U.S. Highway 24, and State Highway 71, Limon is far from any major city or town, being 72 miles (116 km) northeast of Colorado Springs, 83 miles (134 km) southeast of Denver, and 486 miles (782 km) west of Kansas City.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²), all land.