Berthoud is a town in Larimer County, Colorado, that was incorporated in 1888. It was first settled in the 1860s by miners following the Colorado gold rush but these settlers failed in their homesteading attempts and moved on. They were replaced by others who had more success at ranching and farming the arid prairie land. The railroad arrived later in 1877 and a small depot was built where the tracks crossed Little Thompson Creek; the area was locally known as Little Creek but was later renamed Berthoud after the surveyor who designed the train route through the valley. However, within a few years, the Colorado Central Railroad decided that the town's proximity to the river created difficulty for the trains ascending out of the valley, and had the town's buildings moved by skid and pack animals to Berthoud's present location.