Greeley, city, seat of Weld County, northern Colorado, on the Cache la Poudre River, near its junction with the Platte River; incorporated 1885. It is a processing center of a rich, irrigated agricultural area that produces livestock, sugar beets, and potatoes. Other manufactures include photographic materials, fishing gear, and chemicals. The University of Northern Colorado (1889) and a junior college are here. The community was founded in 1870 under the auspices of the journalist Horace Greeley, who planned it as a farm cooperative and temperance colony, and for whom it was later named. Population 53,006 (1980); 60,536 (1990); 76,930 (2000).
