Lafayette and Mary Miller were among the thousands of immigrants to make their homes along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in 1862. They originally stopped in a small settlement, now known as Longmont, and two years later made their permanent home in the present site of Lafayette. Mr. Miller died in 1877, leaving his wife to raise six small children on her own. In 1884, the richest vein of coal in the Boulder Valley was discovered on the Miller Ranch. Mary Miller platted a 150-acre town site in 1888 and named it Lafayette, after her late husband. The town was incorporated in 1889 and continued to flourish for the next 50 years in an economy based on coal mining. When the coal industry declined, Lafayette relied on agriculture for its continuing prosperity. As Denver and Boulder grew, Lafayette became primarily a residential community and remained as such until fairly recently