City of Loveland

City Information
The city is located in the Colorado Front Range region at the base of the foothills just east of the mouth of Big Thompson River Canyon at the intersection of U.S. Highway 34 and U.S. Highway 287. Longs Peak and other mountains of the Front Range are visible from much of the city. Lake Loveland, an early agricultural reservoir in the irrigation system of the region, is located in the city limits and provides a recreational facility for the city residents.

Because of its location along U.S. 34, at one of the principal access routes to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, Loveland receives a significant amount of pass-through tourist traffic, especially in the summer months. In addition, the city serves as a “bedroom” community to commuters in many directions: to employment locations in Boulder, Westminster and other parts of the Denver Metropolitan area; and also to the college towns of Fort Collins (CSU) Greeley (UNC) and Boulder, (CU).

Loveland is perhaps best known nationwide as the home of the Valentine Re-Mailing Program. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Valentines are packaged inside larger envelopes and sent to Loveland, where volunteers hand-stamp them with a Valentine’s verse and send them on to the intended recipients. Each year a contest is held through the local newspaper, the Reporter Herald, for residents to submit their verses. The 2009 Loveland Valentine’s Cards are available for purchase for the first time online. The locally produced cards can also be purchased from a number of merchants in Loveland.

Leading up to Valentine’s Day, the city authorizes the placement of red hearts with sponsored personal messages on light poles and other fixtures of the city streets.

As of the census of 2000, there were 50,608 people, 19,741 households, and 14,035 families residing in the city. The median income for a household in the city was $47,119, and the median income for a family was $54,337. wikipedia.org