Derby was a station on the Burlington Railroad line in 1887. A map of Adams County in 1906, published in the booklet "Adams County, Crossroads of the West" by Albin Wagner, shows Irondale and Derby on the Burlington Railroad Lines and Adams City on the Union Pacific Railroad. The town of Derby was developed in 1889, but it had no post office until 1910. An addition named Rose Hill was also on this 1906 map.

Another railroad station, near the present town of Commerce City, on the Union Pacific Railroad line was "The Hatchery."

Three years after Colorado became a state; 11 acres near Dupont were purchased for $2,650 to construct a State Fish Hatchery. Construction began on the new wooden building in November of 1881 and by the middle of December 100,000 trout eggs were placed in the new hatching troughs.

In April of 1882 the fish hatchery provided lakes and streams of Colorado with 240,000 small fish. 40,000 fish were sold to individuals.

The hatchery building was updated in 1889 and in 1922 it was rebuilt of stone. It continued to produce fish for Colorado streams and lakes until operation was discontinued in 1963.

In 1969 a law was passed requiring hunters to take a safe hunter course, and in 1973 the Division of Wild Life remodeled the old hatchery to make a large classroom in the front and a seven-lane rifle range in the rear. The buildings that set on 88th Avenue, across from the International Hearing Dog Association, is now a hunter safety rifle range of the Division of Wildlife.