FORT COLLINS COLORADOAN — Nansi Crom falls asleep at night to the lullaby of coyotes howling on the edge of her home of 43 years. The stars gleam outside in this western Weld County town's unadulterated brand of rural darkness.
Pierce’s recently elected mayor used to be the town bus driver. She knows her neighbors and her neighbors’ neighbors. Her home is a short walk from every business in the 1,200-person town and a short drive from the irrigated fields lining its outskirts.
None of that has changed much since 1975, when Crom heard the call of small-town life and packed her things. But Pierce is no longer the home she once knew.
The one-time farming community that blossomed beneath the watering can of Poudre River irrigation ditches is becoming a bedroom community. The farm where Crom used to buy cabbage for homemade sauerkraut is now a parking lot. A stream of cars flows down Weld County Road 33 every morning and afternoon as residents shuttle to and from their city jobs.
Read more at the Coloradoan: https://noconow.co/2vTNNTx
