Map: Greeley

Region: Northern Front Range Regional Information

County: Weld

Proximity to other towns: Located 2.6 miles from Evans, 11 miles from Milliken, 11.7 miles from Ault

Population: 93,000+

Elevation: 4,664 feet

Greeley, Co. was naamed after Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, who popularized the phrase, "Go West young man, go West," but it was his visionary agricultural editor, Nathan C. Meeker, who spearheaded one of the most successful colonization experiments ever attempted in the "Great American Desert."

Meeker called for ambitious individuals with high moral standards and money to form a colony based upon the following principles: cooperation, irrigation, agriculture, temperance, religion and education. The call elicited 3,000 responses and 59 individuals who ultimately formed a joint stock company called Union Colony in December 1869.

On October 12 of the following year, Horace Greeley paid his one and only visit to the town that bore his name. By that time, colonists had erected houses on town lots close to the confluence of the South Platte and Cache la Poudre rivers, etablished a newspaper, built irrigation canals and designed streets to be 100 feet wide and ultimately lined with beautiful trees.

Greeley today is recognized for its quality of life with a thriving performing arts and business community, and is home to the University of Northern Colorado. Each spring, one of the nation's largest jazz festivals has the whole town tapping its toes. In the summer Greeley is home to one of the nation's largest rodeos The Greeley Independence Stampede.

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