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Original Main street now Rd. 7 & Welker Ave. ca.
1912-1913
Courtesy of Longmont Museum.
Earliest picture I have of Mead
(Warning photo is large so will take a
long time to load)
The Town
of Mead, Weld County Colorado, was originally founded in 1906 when the Great
Western Railroad announced they were bypassing the growing community of Highlandlake, (founded in 1871-72),
and instead laying track a full mile east of the town. Additionally,
the promised beet dump was now to be located on the eastern border of
Paul Mead's (nephew of Highlandlake founder, L. C. Mead) farm.
Various stories abound to this day as to what happened to make
the railroad change their original plans. Some people maintain that the railroad
found the original route too difficult, and changed the route at the last minute
to bypass a hilly area. Others say that there actually was an election for where
the railroad would go with the residents of Highlandlake and Liberty voting with
the polling place located at the Liberty Schoolhouse. On the day of the
election, the story goes, there was a blizzard and the residents of Highlandlake
were unable to get to the polling place to vote. Finally, more than a few people
find it interesting that Paul Mead benefited from the change of route, and that
not only did he sell land to the railroad for the beet dump, but that he also
had a whole town laid out before the first track was laid.
Whatever the reason for the railroad changing its mind, the citizen's of Highlandlake were devastated by the news, as they had
worked with various railroad companies for almost 30 years, trying to get them to come to Highlandlake.
The only solution in many people's minds was if the railroad wouldn't come to the town,
then the town had to be moved to the railroad tracks.
Since the new beet dump was on the border of his land, Paul
Mead saw a business opportunity and laid out several blocks and streets for the
new town, donated land for a park and school and started selling business and
home lots, even before the first track was laid. The town was platted on
February 19, 1906 and local businessmen decided that it was only fitting that
the name of the new town be Mead, after the man whose land the town was now on.
On March 17, 1908 the town was chartered and over the next few years, most of the public buildings at Highlandlake were moved to the
new town site.
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