EDITOR’S NOTE: This fall will mark the 140th anniversary of the official founding of the Town of Meeker (and this newspaper). In light of that upcoming event, we’ll be sharing town history and stories about the town’s founders in the coming weeks.
The Meeker Townsite Company was formed by a promoter from Denver, D. M. Richards, with resources from his investors and local investors. One-thousand shares were sold. Town lots were plotted and sold for the new town of Meeker.
One minor detail, all the shareholders and buyers of the lots found out that they were technically squatters on land still part of the former Ute Reservation. The Army and the U.S. government had forgotten to properly foreclose on the Utes. When the Meeker Townsite Company tried to buy the land, it wasn’t on the market yet.
The Colorado newspapers had been speculating for a year about the withdrawal of the military. Cattlemen were salivating about the opportunity to use it all for ranging herds. Lush grazing land in the White River Valley looked like the next big land rush. Businessmen who had accumulated cash in mining camps like Leadville saw this as a great investment. Cattlemen saw it as some of the last free grazing.
In 1884, huge herds arrived from Texas, Wyoming and Utah. After many long trips to the Glenwood Springs Land Office, the land was “proved up” in 1888. Proving Up was a term used when a land patent was finalized by the government. On Nov. 4, 1885 (two years after the Army left), a court in Glenwood gave its blessing to the incorporation of the Meeker as a town. Town officials were named and a town marshal was appointed. The first board of trustees were mostly shareholders of the original Meeker Townsite Company.
Garfield County was created in February of 1883 by the legislature. Before then, this land was part of Routt County (1877) and before that, Summit County (1861). A temporary county seat for Garfield was set up in the boom town mining camp of Carbonate. A vote was taken in the fall of 1883 to decide whether the county seat would be in Glenwood Springs or Meeker. The populations around Glenwood and Meeker were roughly the same (small). Meeker lost the popular vote by 27 men. A developer in Glenwood was accused of spending more money at the saloons that day to sway the vote. Such was standard practice then.
The town of Meeker was miffed and petitioned later to have its own county with Meeker as the county seat. Rio Blanco County was created in 1889, six years after the Army abandoned the primitive adobe and log buildings in 1883. By 1900, Rio Blanco County had 1,690 people with 506 of those living in Meeker.
On Thanksgiving Day 1900, Meeker witnessed its first football game. The score was Meeker 16, Thornburg 2. Business was booming at Oldland & Co. General Merchandise; Strehlke & Givens drug store, selling Craddocks Medicated Blue Soap; David Smith and Co. Native and Oregan Lumber, run by David Smith and T.D. Riley; Harke & Sheets saddles and harness; F.N. JoHangten, blacksmith and wagon maker; Colorado Stage & Transportation Co., connections to Rifle, Meeker and Axial, H.S, Harp and T.S. Harp; J.W. Hugus & Co., J.C. Davis Mgr. Mechantile and Banking; Lord & Tagert, butchers and grocers; Meeker Herald, James Lyttle, editor and publisher; The Meeker Hotel; Miller House, hotel; E. T. Sumner, Tonsorial Artist, shaving, haircuts, and shampooing; Henry A. Wildhack, assistance with Pre-emption and Desert Land claims.
Sources: This Is What I Remember books; Rio Blanco Historical Society; Ellen Reichert; Documents collected by Ellen Reichert; Garfield County Clerk & Recorder’s Office.
