There is a large population of German descent living in Northeastern Colorado, people referred to as "Russian Germans," whose ancestors had emigrated to Russia from Germany, and then from Russia to the United States. The farming of beets was similar to the farming in the areas of eastern Germany and western Russia where these people had lived.

Glenn Miller grew up in Fort Morgan, from about the age of ten through high school, and I believe his family lived there long after he had become famous. When I first arrived in Fort Morgan I was told there were old-timers around who still remembered 'that kid and his damn trombone.' Kind of puts those memories of garage bands in a whole new perspective.

James Michener taught school in Greeley during the late 30s or the 40s, at the school associated with the State Normal School (teacher's college), which became the University of Northern Colorado. Michener did his research at the college library, and the library at U.N.C. is named after him. His book, "Centennial," was centered in and around a fictionalized frontier Greeley, and when the television mini-series based on the book was filmed, much of it was filmed around Greeley. The small town of Orchard, closer to Fort Morgan, stood in for the frontier Centennial/Greeley. Upon visiting the town, I discovered the few, mostly empty, buildings were covered with foam bricks. There were stories in Greeley about which stars were jerks, which one supposedly gay, contrary to his public image. A pivotal scene that took place in a teepee had to be filmed in the lobby of the Holiday Inn due to rain or a spring snow storm, or so I was told.

During World War II a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers was established west of Greeley. The prisoners were used to help harvest crops, beets probably for the most part. There are still the stone bases for the entrance gate to the camp on the north side of Highway 34, with a recently added plaque that tells that the soldiers had been captured in the North African campaign against Rommel. I was told that the back half of the building that housed a restaurant/bar where I worked in Evans was the commandant's quarters from the camp, transported across town. The stories are that the soldiers found eastern Colorado and farming quite an improvement over their conditions in the war.