Orchard, Colorado

Orchard, Colorado
Orchard, Colorado
Census Designated Place
	Washington Avenue in Orchard
	Location in Morgan County, Colorado
	Orchard Location in the United States
	Coordinates: 39°02′11″N 108°31′00″W / 39.0362808°N 108.5165891°W
Country	United States
State	Colorado
County	Morgan County
Government
• Type	unincorporated town
Area
• Total	0.160 sq mi (0.41 km2)
• Land	0.160 sq mi (0.41 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0 km2)
Elevation	4,409 ft (1,344 m)
Population (2020)
• Total	76
• Density	475.0/sq mi (183.4/km2)
Time zone	UTC-7 (MST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-6 (MDT)
ZIP Code	80649
Area code	970
GNIS feature	Orchard CDP

Orchard is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Morgan County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Fort Morgan, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. The Orchard post office has the ZIP Code 80649.^[4] As of the 2020 census, the population of the Orchard CDP was 76.^[3]

History

The Orchard post office has been in operation since 1882.^[5] The community was named for a grove of cottonwood trees near the original town site.^[6]

Orchard is the town that was used to film James Michener's miniseries Centennial. Most if not all of the remnants of the production sets are now gone. On August 2nd 2024 Orchard was renamed Centennial for one day in honor of the filming.^{[citation needed]}

Oblique air photo of Orchard (center) with the South Platte River crossing from left to right, in September 2018

Geography

Orchard is in western Morgan County along Colorado State Highway 144, north of the South Platte River. Highway 144 leads northeast, then southeast down the South Platte valley 23 miles (37 km) to Fort Morgan, the Morgan county seat, and south 4 miles (6 km) to U.S. Route 34. The Orchard CDP has an area of 0.16 square miles (0.41 km²), all land.^[1]