The hub of northeastern Colorado, Sterling is the largest town in Logan County. It is home to more than 13,000 residents and provides a huge array of retail services, annual events and activities to approximately 45,000 residents in the trade area. In 1873, families from Tennessee and Mississippi settled farmland along the Overland Trail and in 1875 established 12 homesteads near today’s town. In 1881 Minos King offered the Union Pacific Railroad 80 acres of land in exchange for building a roundhouse, depot and hotel. Sterling was platted and became the junction of the Union Pacific and Burlington Railroads, providing an ideal location for commerce and industry to bloom. Other settlers began moving to the new town by 1883 and the community was incorporated in 1884.