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      Original Main street now Rd. 7 & Welker Ave. ca. 1911-1912
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. Paul, his wife Ariet and their older children, were imtimately involved in the laying out of the town. 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.

Below is a transcribed excerpt from a memorial to Aret Palmer Mead, by her daughter, Myra Imogene Mead Cope, Written in 1961, she relates her memories of the founding of the Town of Mead.

 

"I can remember the founding of the little town of Mead, Colorado, in 1906, on one corner of the farm. The Great Western Sugar Company was putting in a railroad for transporting beets to the sugar mill, and had located a beet dump where the tracks cut across a corner of the farm. With all of the farmers coming there with their crop, it seemed the logical site for a town, and Mead, the logical name for it, as the land had been originally homesteaded by Grandpa Mead. Mother and Father laid out the plans for the town, named the streets, and were active in developing the new community, as they had been in the older one (Highlandlake). The wanted it to be a good town, with no 'evil element,' and had it stipulated in the titles to all the lots that they sold, that liquor was not to be sold on any of the property, ever." Remembrance of Things Past. Dr. Myra Imogene Mead Cope, M.D. Unpublished. Written for Ariet Palmer Mead's funeral service. may 12, 1961.

Note: Grandpa Mead, was Dr. Martin Luther Mead, M.D. who is buried in the Highlandlake Pioneer Cemetery.

This page was updated on December 14, 2009