Farmer A.F. Ray, owner of Nature's Herbs and Wellness Center, a bootlegger who used hollowed out melons to cart his moonshine, made it the place to go for a good stiff drink during Prohibition. The area was formally incorporated as Garden City, Colorado in 1938, and the town boomed as a place to legally buy and drink booze while neighboring Greeley remained dry until 1969. Today, the town is poised to broaden its freewheeling ways, this time by opening the door to recreational marijuana sales that Greeley, Evans and unincorporated Weld County have banned. We stand for individual rights and going against the trends. It's OK to be different, said the mayor of Garden City, Brian Seifried. But it is incredibly ironic that it is so precisely the story from the past. Nature's Herbs amp;amp; Wellness Center has more than doubled its space in the past four years, and owners are preparing to open a second greenhouse next year. Reminders of Garden City's origins are scattered around town, like the black-and-white pictures in the first bars that opened in town, and sealed basements that are said to have once led to tunnels for moonshine or brothels. Town elders love to talk about that history. - The Denver Post - The owners Aunt, Judy Gochenour and mom, Mary Rotherham pictured
