City: Boulder, CO

Category: Relocation

Address: 8 miles from Boulder

Description: The town was first settled around 1867 by a Methodist pastor who named it after his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Like its namesake, Colorado’s Erie is a former coal town. An area of tilled farm fields and subdivisions, Erie is the site of the 119-acre Tri-County Airport. Some homes near the airport have hangars and taxiways to the airport in their backyards, mirroring the garages and driveways they have in the front. Its major industries are landfills and junkyards near town. Sound boring? Quite the opposite. This is Boulder County, remember! Blake’s Small Car Salvage has been on national television for being one of the prettiest junkyards around. (See the Shopping chapter for more on this spot.) And a nearby business, Construction Recycling, recycles more than 80 percent of the building scraps it receives.As housing prices push residential development east from Boulder to Lafayette, Louisville and Superior, Erie is beginning to feel the ripple. This neat little town is warm and friendly and is welcoming newcomers with new housing and retail developments.You can reach Erie by taking Arapahoe Road east out of Boulder past U.S. Highway 287. You’ll be on a dirt road for a while, which dead-ends. Turn left (north). Go about 1.5 miles and you’re in Erie. The Town Hall is at Lincoln School, 645 Holbrook Street (303-926-2700).