Brush: Where the Cattle Trails Crossed the Railroad

The town of Brush developed in eighteen eighty-two where the Burlington and Missouri Railroad came through the eastern Colorado plains. It was named for Jared L. Brush, an influential early rancher in the region, and its earliest purpose was shipping cattle, the Texas Montana Trail ran through this part of Colorado, and ranchers drove their herds north and south along it.

A catastrophic winter in eighteen eighty-six and eighty-seven, known as the Great Die-Up, helped bring the open-range era to an end. Brush survived the transition by pivoting to irrigation agriculture along the South Platte River. Sugar beets eventually became the backbone of the local economy, and Brush found its permanent identity as a supply town and agricultural hub for Morgan County, small, steady, and still recognizable as the railroad crossroads it was from the beginning.