Arriba: The Town That Built a Fence Against a Saloon

Arriba means up in Spanish, a nod to its elevation on the high plains of Lincoln County. Charles Creel founded it in eighteen eighty-eight as a station on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, with one condition: no liquor. When a rival settlement called Frontier City opened literally across the street in nineteen oh seven, selling what Arriba would not, Creel responded by building fences and digging ditches between the two towns to enforce his decree.

The standoff lasted about fourteen years, until the people of Arriba held a vote in nineteen eighteen and absorbed Frontier City by a count of ninety to one, lifting the ban and ending the driest border dispute in Colorado history. The first post office opened in eighteen eighty-nine, and Arriba officially became a town in August nineteen eighteen, the same year the two rival towns finally merged.