Superior, Colorado

Superior was founded in 1896 near the site of a major coal mine from which "superior quality" coal was extracted. Mining was the big business in town until the last mine closed in the aftermath of World War II. After that, the population of Superior dwindled away as it evolved into a farming and ranching community, until residential developers arrived in the 1980's looking for vacant land in that zone between Boulder and Denver just off U.S. Highway 36 (the Boulder-Denver Turnpike).

The Rock Creek Development began in 1987 and is still not completely built out, although it has raised Superior's population from around 250 to above 10,000 in those intervening years.