Logan County, Colorado

Logan County is a county in Colorado, United States, in the state’s northeastern corner about
125 miles northeast of Denver. It had a population of 21,528 at the 2020 census, an estimated
20,654 by 2025, and covers 1,845 square miles (4,780 km2) centred near 40°44′N 103°07′W.

Sterling is the county seat and the county’s only city; its postal code is 80751. The county
holds 1 city, 5 incorporated towns and 6 smaller communities, and it runs on Mountain Time.

Towns & Villages in Logan County

Logan County has 12 named places on record: 6 incorporated cities and towns, 2 census-designated
places, and 4 unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. CDP stands for
census designated place; Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural communities with no formal
boundary. The site’s older list also carried more than a dozen ghost towns — Ackerman,
Armstrong, Beta, Buchanan, Galien, Graylin, Griff, Jessica, Kelly, Lesy, Logan, Marcott, Mount
Hope, New Haven, Powell, Red Lion, Rockland, Selma, Shahan, Tobin, Twin Mills, Westplains and
Winston — abandoned townsites with no current population, none listed in the table below.

ZIP Codes

• 80751 — Sterling (the county’s most populous ZIP, also covers surrounding rural routes)
• 80728 — Fleming
• 80741 — Merino
• 80736 — Iliff
• 80747 — Peetz
• 80726 — Crook
• 80745 — Padroni

Atwood, Dailey, Proctor, Saint Petersburg and Willard have no ZIP code of their own; mail there
is delivered under Sterling’s or Merino’s code depending on location.

Geography

Logan County sits in the South Platte River valley on Colorado’s high plains, flat farmland cut
by the river’s wide, cottonwood-lined bottomland. Of its 1,845 square miles, 1,839 are land and
6.3 are water, about 0.3 percent — the South Platte, which crosses the county west to east
past Sterling, accounts for nearly all of it. Irrigation canals drawn off the river feed the
county’s farmland, and the North Sterling Reservoir, northwest of the city, is the largest body
of standing water.

Cheyenne County and Kimball County, both in Nebraska, lie to the north; Phillips County and
Sedgwick County to the east; Yuma County to the southeast; Washington County to the south; Morgan
County to the southwest; and Weld County to the west. Phillips County, Sedgwick County, Yuma County, Washington County and Weld County all have their own pages on this site; Morgan County does not.

Demographics

Logan County had a population of 21,528 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts the
county near 20,654 residents, a modest decline typical of the rural high plains. Sterling and
Fleming are the two largest communities, with Sterling alone holding almost two-thirds of the
county’s people. Colorado’s statewide median household income was $92,911 in the 2023 ACS;
Logan County, a farming and corrections-economy county, runs well below that figure. Population
density works out to roughly 11.7 people per square mile of land, sparse even for eastern
Colorado.

Economy & Local Life

Agriculture anchors the county’s economy — corn, wheat, sugar beets and cattle feeding
dominate the irrigated bottomland along the South Platte. The Colorado Department of Corrections
runs the Sterling Correctional Facility, one of the state’s largest prisons and among the
county’s biggest employers. Northeastern Junior College, a two-year public college in Sterling
enrolling more than 1,500 students, and the RE-1 Valley School District are the other major
employers, alongside Sterling Regional MedCenter, the county’s hospital. Peetz Table, in the
county’s northeast corner, hosts one of Colorado’s largest wind farms. Logan County’s fair and
rodeo, held each August at the fairgrounds in Sterling, is the county’s biggest annual event.

History

The Colorado territorial and later state legislature organized Logan County on 25 February 1887,
naming it for General John A. Logan, a Union Army commander and U.S. senator who had no direct
tie to the area. Sterling, platted along the South Platte and the Union Pacific rail line, became
the county seat.

Sugar beet processing reshaped the county’s small towns after 1905, when a Great Western Sugar
factory opened near Sterling and the crop, along with the Mexican and German-Russian immigrant
labor it drew, became a mainstay of the local economy. Interstate 76’s construction in 1958
bypassed several older beet towns, including Iliff, and the 1985 closure of Sterling’s sugar
factory ended that era. The domed Logan County Courthouse in Sterling, built in 1909, is the
county’s most recognized landmark.

Getting There

Interstate 76 crosses the county through Sterling and Crook, running from Denver to Nebraska.
U.S. Route 6 and U.S. Route 138 also serve the county.

• Denver — about 125 miles southwest
• Fort Morgan — about 47 miles southwest
• North Platte, Nebraska — about 100 miles northeast
• Cheyenne, Wyoming — about 110 miles northwest

Denver International Airport, about 121 miles southwest of Sterling, is the nearest major
commercial airport; Crosson Field in Sterling handles general aviation with no scheduled flights.
The nearest Amtrak station is in Fort Morgan, roughly 47 miles away; Bustang and Express Arrow
buses connect Sterling to Denver and Nebraska cities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Logan County located?
It sits in Colorado’s northeastern corner along the South Platte River, about 125 miles
northeast of Denver, bordered by two Nebraska counties and five Colorado counties.

What is the population of Logan County?
21,528 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 20,654.

How big is Logan County?
1,845 square miles (4,780 km2) in total, of which 1,839 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Logan County?
Sterling is the county seat and the county’s only city.

How many towns are in Logan County?
Six incorporated places — Sterling, Fleming, Merino, Iliff, Peetz and Crook — plus
two census-designated places, Atwood and Padroni, and four unincorporated communities: Dailey,
Proctor, Saint Petersburg and Willard.

What ZIP codes does Logan County use?
80751 for Sterling, 80728 for Fleming, 80741 for Merino, 80736 for Iliff, 80747 for Peetz, 80726
for Crook and 80745 for Padroni.

What is Logan County known for?
The Sterling Correctional Facility, Northeastern Junior College, and the Peetz Table wind farm,
one of Colorado’s largest.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Colorado.