George Richey - Third Postmaster of Highlandlake. 1898-1907

1883 was a busy year for Highlandlake. The little village was growing and the services of a post office were not only desired but necessary for the flourishing little community. On November 11, 1883, the first post office was opened with William Henry Oviatt appointed as Postmaster, and Highlandlake finally had a place of its own on the map.

The first location was at Oviatt's home on the west side corner of the road on the south end of the lake. William Oviatt was born in Cleveland, Ohio and originally came to Colorado in 1876. He faithfully served as Postmaster for 13 years until his sudden death November 27, 1896.

An interim Postmaster, William's son, Harry Oviatt was appointed by the town bondsman until the position could be filled. (Longmont Ledger, Dec. 18, 1896). In 1898, the position was accepted by George Richey and moved to his place of business on the northwest curve of Main street, north of the L. C. Mead home and the Meat Market.

Richey was officially appointed on March 1, 1898 and held that position until January 27, 1907 when Cecil V. Holmes took over. Cecil only held the position for nineteen months. On January 29, 1910, William D. Cannon was appointed the postmaster. The same day that William became the Postmaster, the name of the community was inexplicably changed to Highland Lake by the post office. The local citizens and the Longmont Ledger continued to call it Highlandlake until well into the 1920's, and eventually the name change stuck. Only three years later on August 9, 1913, the Post Office was permanently closed and a RFD route was established. The first mail from the new route arrived on August 11, 1913 and until the late 1990s, was delivered from Platteville.At that time, the Mead post Office started local delivery to everyone, except those living in the Mead old town.

In the early days, getting the mail was not always an easy matter. First the mail was delivered to the Highland Switch station three miles to the west of Highlandlake. A carrier, who was almost always a man, but sometimes a woman, would pick it up and haul it across the prairie to Highlandlake. The old saying, "neither sleet or snow or rain or hail will.." did not apply here. If the weather was bad - there was no mail, if the train was late or not running - there was no mail. In January 1899, the Highlandlake column in the Longmont Ledger comments, "No mail Saturday till afternoon, the mail carrier having the misfortune to get lost in the prairie in the snow storm. He could not locate where he was until the morning mail was gone, but tried again after noon and was successful."

This page was updated on October 22, 2009