Cattle Towns: Greeley, Colorado

The agricultural editor for the New York Tribune, Nathan C. Meeker, dreamed of a Utopian community on the plains northeast of Denver. He spearheaded a drive to form a colony based on cooperation, irrigation, temperance, religion, and education. His efforts were supported by his editor, Horace Greeley, who wrote the famous phrase, "Go West, young man, go West." In 1868, Meeker founded this town and named it Greeley. It was located where the rail line from Denver to Cheyenne crossed the Platte and the Poudre Rivers. Today, one can still visit the adobe home of Nathan Meeker, now surrounded by Greeley's bustling downtown area.

By the time Horace Greeley paid his first and only visit to Greeley in 1869, the townsfolk had built homes, established a newspaper, built irrigation canals, and designed streets 100 feet wide and lined with trees. Few people know that Greeley was one of the first planned communities in the United States, Centennial Village, a bi-centennial project dedicated in 1976, features 30 original structures depicting life in Greeley from 1860–1920.

Another visionary worthy of note was W.D. Farr, whose grandfather settled in Greeley in 1877. A leading citizen in our community, Farr's greatest gift to Weld County was his vision for water resources necessary for a growing community. He and other leaders dreamed of tapping high mountain reservoirs as a source of water for irrigation and development. Farr and his associates were true pioneers, giving Greeley the abundant water resources it enjoys today. Their major accomplishment was the construction of a tunnel through the mountains to bring the water down to the plains of Greeley.