Mead Local Legends & Lore

Mead Local Legends & Lore

 

This is the place I plan on recording the local lore and legends of Mead. Most of the stories in this category are based on memories, family legends, local "tales" and the such. I am in no way trying to prove or disprove these stories, only save them for posterity. Everyone's community and life are made up of many stories that are handed down from generation to generation. It is the likes of these that I want to record here. Many of these stories are or may be true. And then there are those that fall in the category of "Tall Tales" I will try to give sources if possible and if I can prove a story for sure, will certainly say so. None of these stories are intended to embarrass or hurt anyone. If you have a problem with any of them and can prove a relationship, I will consider removing them.

Enjoy!

The following story is told about the Mead blacksmith, Clint Smith. Mr. Smith built the last jail, (which was still located at the back of the old Town Hall in 1970). He was arrested one night for drunkenness. The Town Marshall proceeded to put him in jail to sleep it off. When the Marshall returned he found the jail empty and the door still locked! He later found Clint on the street and asked him how he got out of jail. Clint replied that you should never put a man into a jail that he had constructed. Mr. Smith, it seems, had just lifted the door off the hinges and replaced it without unlocking it!  This story has been told and retold for many years. Clint Smith was a blacksmith in Mead and he did at least make the iron door for the jail. It is certainly possible that this story is true, but I have not found anyone still living who actually witnessed this.

Early on in Mead's history, there was a town marshal who it seems was a little less than honest. One night he decided to break into the bank next door to his office and rob the bank. He managed to knock a hole large enough to get into the bank but was unsuccessful at getting the safe open. He gave up, but then had to do something about the large hole in the back of the bank building. Thinking quickly, he ran across the alley, stole a pet rabbit from someone's backyard, killed it, dripped blood down the alley and then fired his gun, all the while shouting, "Thief! Thief! He got away with it, but some kids later claimed that they had seen the whole thing. This story was originally related to a friend of mine by her husband and a couple of his friends, several years ago. All three of the people who told her this are now dead, so it can't be verified at least at this time. It reportedly occurred sometime in 1916 or 1917, when these three individuals were around 10 to 12 years of age. Some people still living, claim that the Marshall was just the kind of man to try and pull this off, others won't hear of it. Since this man still has descendants living in the area, I have chosen not to identify him. If there indeed was a robbery attempt, I'm sure an account of it would be found in the Longmont Ledger, a newspaper in the nearby town of Longmont, CO. Most of the issues are located in the Longmont Public Library on Micro

Another earlier story concerning a bank robbery occurred in the nearby community of Highlandlake. Most of the stores and businesses plus many of the homes were being moved to the new town site of Mead. Apparently the bank was robbed one night. What the thieves didn't know was that the money had already been moved to the new back in Mead. The safe had been left behind. The thieves took the locked, but empty safe over to the inlet ditch and blew it open, finding nothing inside. The thieves fled, leaving the safe to rust away along side the ditch.  A Highlandlake resident (Robert "Bob" Faulkner), related this story to me several times before his death a few years ago. The inlet ditch, and yes the safe, were on his property, land that his grandparents had purchased 1900. He said that the remains of the safe rusted awy in the inlet ditch to Highland Lake, and that he observed this. He also claimed his grandmother was the niece of the infamous, James Brother's. He had many tales to tell about them and how they would come and visit their brother, his grandmother's father, in Lyons, Boulder Co. How true they were, and if they were the errant would be robber's, I'll let you decide.

The Mead area has several, irrigation lakes as well as natural, "Prairie Potholes", around it. This attracts many mosquitoes, and where they are, you are sure to find one of their natural enemies - namely bats. Now, despite popular belief, these bats do not seek out people or animals to suck their blood. Their main diet is flying insects which they locate via a radar system since they are blind. The boys took great delight in scaring the girls by throwing small pebbles in the night air. The bats, thinking the rocks were something good to eat, would  swoop down, trying to catch the falling objects. If the boys timed it right, the bats would barely miss the girls heads, sending the hapless victims screaming all the way home! Children still do this today.

 

---