ロングモント・レガシー

エリック・メイソンと共に、
ロングモント博物館館長

As we celebrate Colorado’s 150th birthday and 155 years since Longmont’s founding, we’re sharing special stories about Longmont’s history in this column by Longmont Museum Director Erik Mason. This month, we’re talking about the tech industry in Longmont.

Longmont started to become synonymous with high technology when the Federal Aviation Administration built an air traffic control center on 17th Avenue in 1962. Three years later, IBM announced plans to build a major facility between Boulder and Longmont, spurring decades of innovation.

Former IBM employees founded Storage Technology (later StorageTek) in 1969, which grew to become the largest employer in Boulder County by the 1980s, then hit bankruptcy, rebounded, and finally was sold. Another data storage company, MiniScribe, was founded in 1980 in the basement of a Longmont home and made hard drives for the growing personal computer industry. Pressure for profitability eventually led to financial fraud and sale to another tech company, Maxtor.

The successor to these and other data storage companies, Seagate, is still a leader in data storage, employing close to 1,000 people in Longmont.

スポットライトを浴びる:

Historic Photos of Longmont’s High-Tech History 

キャプション：

1. 1. 1. 1. Exterior of the Denver Air Traffic Control Center in Longmont.
         2. IBM’s Main plaza is shown in this aerial view of the front of the Administration building at IBM, circa 1969. (Photo by Leigh Wiener / Longmont Times-Call)
         3. Students enjoy computer class at Loma Linda Elementary School. Published in the Times-Call on February 2, 1992 (Staff photographer / Longmont Times Call)
         4. 2026 Photo of the Saint Vrain Valley School District Innovation Center at 33 Quail Road in Longmont
         5. Community members enjoy a July 4, 2025 drone performance created by students with the Innovation Center of St Vrain Valley School District Drone Performance Team.