Best Web Design in Greeley, CO (2026)

Web Design for Greeley, Colorado

Greeley began as a 19th-century utopian temperance colony on the South Platte and grew into the agricultural capital of Weld County, one of the richest farm counties in America. It is a cattle and meatpacking town famous enough for its odor that locals say 'Smells like Greeley, it's gonna snow.' Home to the University of Northern Colorado and the century-old Greeley Stampede rodeo, it is trying to rebrand as 'Greeley Unexpected.'

AppWT works with Greeley, CO businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Greeley

Also known as. Cow Town. City of Saints (for its temperance past). Greeley Unexpected (city rebranding slogan).

History. Organized in 1869 and founded in 1870 by New York Tribune agricultural editor Nathan C. Meeker as the Union Colony, an experimental utopian community built on temperance, religion, agriculture, education, and family values. The town was named for Meeker's boss, famed newspaper editor and colony backer Horace Greeley. The colony bought roughly 12,000 acres at a river confluence and became known in the 1870s for extensive irrigation, with residents maintaining networks of ditches. No saloons or liquor stores were permitted, earning it a reputation as a temperance stronghold; the town incorporated on November 15, 1885. Prohibition-style temperance lasted about a century until a 1969 vote narrowly legalized alcohol sales in the city. During World War II, Greeley hosted two POW camps in 1943, one for German and one for Italian prisoners.

Local economy. JBS USA operates a massive beef-packing plant in Greeley and is the city's largest employer (over 5,000 workers). Banner Health's North Colorado Medical Center is a major regional hospital and employer. The University of Northern Colorado is a leading education employer, alongside Greeley-Evans School District 6. Leprino Foods opened a large cheese factory in the area in 2017. Weld County is one of the biggest agricultural counties in the U.S., producing more than $1 billion in ag products a year, plus significant oil and gas activity.

Culture and community. The Greeley Stampede, which began as the Greeley Spud Rodeo in 1922 and was renamed by 1972, draws roughly 250,000 visitors with rodeos, concerts, and parades. Novelist James A. Michener attended the school now known as the University of Northern Colorado, and later set fiction in the region. In 1958 Greeley became the first U.S. city to establish a Department of Culture. In 1922 KFKA became one of the first radio stations to broadcast in the United States. The Union Colony Civic Center, a 1,686-seat venue, hosts Broadway tours and concerts.

What makes Greeley distinct. Greeley's meatpacking plants and surrounding feedlots produce an odor so distinctive that locals joke, 'Smells like Greeley, it's gonna snow.' Weld County has a 'right to farm' policy that formally warns residents they must tolerate the smell of livestock. Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian writer whose ideas influenced the Muslim Brotherhood, lived in Greeley in 1949 while studying at Colorado State College of Education (now UNC), and wrote critically of American life there. A vote to end temperance passed by just 477 votes in 1969, ending roughly a century of the city being effectively dry. The city adopted the slogan 'Greeley Unexpected' as part of an effort to move past its cow-town odor reputation.

Greeley Landmarks and Local Life

• Meeker Home Museum - the 1870 adobe home of founder Nathan Meeker
• Centennial Village Museum - an open-air museum of historic regional buildings
• Island Grove Regional Park - home of the Greeley Stampede
• Union Colony Civic Center
• University of Northern Colorado campus
• Weld County Courthouse in downtown Greeley