History of Mead
The Town of Mead was platted on February 16, 1906 and incorporated on March 17, 1908. The Town was named for Paul Mead, the nephew of Highlandlake founder, "Deacon" L. C. Mead, who had emigrated from Chicago and built his homestead at what is now Highlandlake. L. C. Mead was well known locally for his work with the Highland Ditch Company while that company was surveying and building Highland Lake on his property. The Highland Ditch and its reservoir system was one of the first farm irrigation systems in the country and was, at that time, a subject of wide agricultural study at many of the country's agricultural education institutions. The small unincorporated community of Highlandlake is still in existence and is located approximately 1 1/2 miles west of Mead.
In 1905 the Great Western Railroad built a feeder from Longmont to Johnstown to gather and take the sugar beet harvest to their refinery in Longmont. The railway ran along the eastern boundary of Paul Mead's property. It was decided by the businesses at Highlandlake to relocate to this railway siding, which led Paul to plat a new town adjacent to the tracks. For the next two decades the Town prospered as farmers used this siding to get their crops to the market.
At its peak, Mead had three general stores, a hotel, a combination grocery store and meat market, two saloons, a butcher shop, a filling station, two auto garages, an implement company, two livery stables, a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop, a drug store, a hoe and harness repair shop, a post office, two doctors' offices, two banks The First National Bank of Mead and Farmer's and Merchants Bank as well as a newspaper (Mead Messenger). Two of the churches in existence then are still active today.
An additional note, The United Church of Christ - Congregational of Highlandlake, is the official name of the church building where Diehard II with Bruce Willis was filmed. Originally built in 1896, the church is owned by Historic Highlandlake, Inc., the local historical society for the Highlandlake/Mead area, and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The building has been maintained by members of the Highlandlake community as a community center since 1917, after the church closed its doors. Historic Highlandlake also owns the Historic Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1878.
In 1921, while living in Berthoud, Paul Mead suggested to visiting friends from Highlandlake, that it would be fun to have a pioneer's picnic/reunion on the grounds of the Highlandlake church. The idea took off, and the community has held a reunion/community gathering on the second Sunday of June, every year since. Mead later moved to California and then to Hawaii where he died in 1945. His body was returned to Highlandlake where he was laid to rest next to his parents and brothers.
The Highlandlake community was the original town site of what later became the Town of Mead, Colorado. The motto of the town has been "the little town that could" although this has not been ubiquitously used in all literature or signage. Alternatively, and on the Mead web site, the motto is "A little town with a big future".The Town of Mead was platted on February 16, 1906 and incorporated on March 17, 1908. The Town was named for Paul Mead, the nephew of Highlandlake founder, "Deacon" L. C. Mead, who had emigrated from Chicago and built his homestead at what is now Highlandlake. L. C. Mead was well known locally for his work with the Highland Ditch Company while that company was surveying and building Highland Lake on his property. The Highland Ditch and its reservoir system was one of the first farm irrigation systems in the country and was, at that time, a subject of wide agricultural study at many of the country's agricultural education institutions. The small unincorporated community of Highlandlake is still in existence and is located approximately 1 1/2 miles west of Mead. In 1905 the Great Western Railroad built a feeder from Longmont to Johnstown to gather and take the sugar beet harvest to their refinery in Longmont. The railway ran along the eastern boundary of Paul Mead's property. It was decided by the businesses at Highlandlake to relocate to this railway siding, which led Paul to plat a new town adjacent to the tracks. For the next two decades the Town prospered as farmers used this siding to get their crops to the market. At its peak, Mead had three general stores, a hotel, a combination grocery store and meat market, two saloons, a butcher shop, a filling station, two auto garages, an implement company, two livery stables, a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop, a drug store, a hoe and harness repair shop, a post office, two doctors' offices, two banks The First National Bank of Mead and Farmer's and Merchants Bank as well as a newspaper (Mead Messenger). Two of the churches in existence then are still active today.An additional note, The United Church of Christ - Congregational of Highlandlake, is the official name of the church building where Diehard II with Bruce Willis was filmed. Originally built in 1896, the church is owned by Historic Highlandlake, Inc., the local historical society for the Highlandlake/Mead area, and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The building has been maintained by members of the Highlandlake community as a community center since 1917, after the church closed its doors. Historic Highlandlake also owns the Historic Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1878. In 1921, while living in Berthoud, Paul Mead suggested to visiting friends from Highlandlake, that it would be fun to have a pioneer's picnic/reunion on the grounds of the Highlandlake church. The idea took off, and the community has held a reunion/community gathering on the second Sunday of June, every year since. Mead later moved to California and then to Hawaii where he died in 1945. His body was returned to Highlandlake where he was laid to rest next to his parents and brothers.The Highlandlake community was the original town site of what later became the Town of Mead, Colorado. The motto of the town has been "the little town that could" although this has not been ubiquitously used in all literature or signage. Alternatively, and on the Mead web site, the motto is "A little town with a big future".