Trapper Mariano Medina arrived in the Big Thompson Valley in 1858. He decided to stay and establish a permanent settlement on ground that would later become the town of Loveland. He recruited friends from Taos to help him build log cabins around a central plaza, plus an adobe structure to serve as the area’s first general store and saloon. After an Indian attack in which sixty of his horses were stolen, Medina built a small stone fortress with gun ports that enabled defenders to shoot in all directions. He built a toll bridge over the Big Thompson to earn extra cash, and charged travelers $1.00 each to cross. An educated man, Medina could speak Spanish, French, English and several native dialects. He married a native woman named Tacosney who made buckskin clothing to sell in the family store. In 1868, a post office was established and the settlement was renamed Namaqua. It remained occupied until the 1920s.
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