Despite what can only be described as a horrible neck beard, newspaper editor Horace Greeley is the namesake of Greeley, Colo. While he grew up in New Hampshire and worked in New York, Greeley was ever popular in the Rockies and beyond for popularizing the phrase, “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.”

He did “Go West” himself in 1859, visiting the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, sending back dispatches of his journey.

The town that now carries his name was founded as the Union Colony in 1869, an experimental utopian society, but the name was later changed in honor of Greeley.

Greeley is one of the largest communities not located along the interstate highway system. That was by choice as the city did not want to waste farmland to bring Interstate 25 into town.

In 2014 Forbes selected Greeley in the top five for both “Top Small Cities for Jobs” and “Best Cities For Job Growth.” And if you like meat and cheese with your jobs, Greeley is for you. Its top employer, JBS, is the world’s biggest producer of meat protein. While another big employer — Leprino Foods — produces more mozzarella cheese than any company on the planet.