Fort Collins is a municipality in northern Colorado that serves as Larimer County seat. Located on the Cache La Poudre River along the Colorado Front Range, Fort Collins is 56 miles north of Denver's Colorado State Capitol. It is the fourth most populous city, with an estimated population of 167,830. Fort Collins was established in 1864 as a United States Army military outpost. It succeeded an earlier encampment on the Cache La Poudre River, known as Camp Collins, near what is today known as Laporte.