For anyone who has not noticed or taken a visit, Greeley has grown up. Just in the last decade, the population of Weld County’s biggest city has blossomed, making it Colorado’s tenth largest city. If it continues on this glidepath, it soon could supplant Pueblo and leapfrog to number nine on the list. In just one census cycle, Greeley has grown by an astounding seventeen percent. Even more astonishing, Greeley was the country’s fastest growing metropolitan area in the country between 1990 and 2003 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“We have experienced pretty fast growth and expect it to continue,” said Kelley Johnson, Chief of Staff for the city. Johnson is like a lot of Greeleyites, not a native but like a lot of current residents, she found herself at home after college at the University of Northern Colorado, northeastern Colorado’s educational flagship, and planted roots.
While Greeley was once known for farming and ranching, two industries that still play important roles in the region’s economy, it no longer is ‘old’ Greeley. The city’s metamorphosis includes new park land, commercial and residential growth and the region’s premier performing arts complex, the Union Colony Civic Center.
“We now have the finer things,” said Johnson, calling the city both eclectic and diverse. In addition to having a university nearby that infuses the town with an unlimited source of talent and imagination, it also has the things that attract young families. “We have trails and open spaces, a strong downtown, breweries and distilleries…we’re continuously evolving.” Greeley also has one of the West’s premier summer events, The Greeley Stampede.
Greeley has evolved and then some, said Greeley native and current owner of the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club, Dick Monfort. “I actually grew up in what we called ‘the country,’ at the time,” he said. The Monforts lived about two miles from the town. Then, Greeley was “about 30,000 people.” It was a different time and different place. Monfort says, yesterday’s Greeley is a long-ago memory. “I literally went to a school with three classrooms, nine grades, three teachers and 39 students.” In many ways, just a few decades ago, Greeley was the fictional town of Mayberry before Mayberry. “When my Mom came into town, grocery stores were quite small and selections not great. It was more of a rural town.” The now ‘baseball guy,’ says his old hometown “was a great place to grow up,” and a place where he still maintains long held friendships.
Greeley began as a community in 1870, the brainchild of a group of stockmen who called themselves the Union Colony of Colorado. It was named after famed newspaper editor, Horace Greeley, today known more for his ‘Go West Young Man,’ declaration than perhaps anything else. Ironically, Greeley made only one visit to the town and lived out his days in New York.
Despite its relative geographic obscurity, Greeley boasts its share of famous Americans. Among them, noted author and writer James Michener, media mogul and professional sports team owner, Bill Daniels, University of Colorado basketball coach Tad Boyle, Colorado political icon Polly Baca and long-ago radio and television personality Ted Mack, host of one of the country’s most popular radio shows, “The Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour.” The program ran on radio and later television from the mid-1930’s to the 1950’s.
Greeley is a city on the move. It has been projected to double in population by 2050. Of course, like much of the West, water is key to how much or how fast it can grow.
In 2021, the city announced plans for tapping underground water that sits on the Colorado-Wyoming border. It is estimated that there exists a subterranean source of water that would ensure continued growth. The Terry Ranch Project, a $318 million plan to tap an underground source of water, is still in its infancy but the blueprint for future growth. The project could begin this year but would not be complete for several years, based on how rapidly growth continues.
Greeley is a town, then and today, with a historically diverse population. The most recent census reflects a Latino population of 40 percent. But, like many towns in the rural west, the town’s leadership does not reflect its diversity. There are no minority members on the town’s city council. The same holds true for its county commissioners. Its city manager, however, is African-American. Raymond C. Lee III was appointed to the position in January 2022.
Rhonda Solis, now a member of the Colorado Board of Education and the first Latina elected to the board from Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, was also the city’s first ever Latina elected to the Greeley School Board. Though not a Greeley native, Solis has lived in Greeley since childhood.
Solis remembers growing up in Greeley and says in many ways it was challenging for kids like her. “High school was really hard for me,” she said. “I did well…but I was not a joiner. I just wanted to get by.” As she looks back, Solis says, “I don’t feel like anyone even knew I went there.” That has changed.
Years later, as a school board member, Solis worked tirelessly to help pass a mill levy override that helped finance the rebuilding of her alma mater, Greeley West High School. Later, at the school’s formal dedication, she read the words on a plaque that sits prominently on a wall inside the school.
On it are the names of the school board members who were instrumental in remaking Greeley West. She said when she saw her name, it reminded her of when she was young and watching television with her grandmother. At the end of a TV show, she said her grandmother would call her and they would carefully read the credits to see the Latino names. “That memory came rushing back.”
