Here’s Why One Colorado Town Earned a Very Devilish Nickname

Fort Fun, the Mile High City, and Olympic City USA are just a few of the unique nicknames that various towns in Colorado have acquired over the years. While most of these alternative monikers are descriptive and lighthearted, during the 1900s, one Colorado town earned a less-than-charming nickname.

Located a few miles north of Sedalia, Colorado, is the small unincorporated town of Louviers (pronounced loo-veers). The town was established in 1906 by the DuPont Company, after determining the location 26 miles south of Denver was ideal for a new dynamite manufacturing plant. DuPont was already well-known in the East and had been making explosives since 1802.

Before the DuPont's arrived, this area of Colorado was originally called Toluca. After the company purchased 1,800 acres, the locale was renamed Louviers, in honor of the wool-growing town in France from which Éleuthère Irénée du Pont was from.

The DuPont's wanted to use the site in Louviers to manufacture explosives for commercial use. Construction to build the plant began almost immediately and when it was completed, the dynamite factory consisted of 94 buildings. The most critical of these structures backed up against the surrounding hills, which acted as natural barriers in case of big blasts.

However, the threat of these potential explosions frightened Colorado resident E.H. "Brownie" Brown. He was concerned that the town of Louviers, along with his taxidermy shop situated south of U.S. 85, could be in danger of blowing up. To express his feelings about the DuPont dynamite factory, Brown decided to take matters into his own hands.

Brown climbed atop his shop and posted a sign painted with big red letters reading "Hellsville, USA."

For years, anyone who passed by on U.S. 85 was made aware of Louviers' newly given nickname. Brown died of natural causes in the 1980s, and his family took the liberty of closing up his shop and removing the devilish sign that was atop of it.

As it turns out, Brown wasn't completely out of line for thinking what he did. According to the Louviers town historian, there were seven fatal accidents at the dynamite plant during its years in business. This was actually a marvelous safety record for that era.

Brown's predictions were wrong in the fact that today, Louviers remains standing and fully intact. The historic town of less than 300 people is even on the National Register.