Williams Family Farm Receives 2024 Centennial Farm Designation

From the Italian family dinner to the historic seed store scenes, the Williams family plays a central role in the story of MIRASOL, looking at the Sun. Four generations of the Williams family have kept Pueblo gardeners deeply rooted, and Palmer Land Conservancy applauds the Williams Family Farm for being honored as a Centennial Farm. 

At the 2024 Colorado State Fair, the Williams Family Farm and Seed Store was recognized as a Centennial Farm, a proud acknowledgment of a century's worth of honest toil and steadfast stewardship. This honor, bestowed by the Colorado Department of Agriculture and History Colorado, is not merely an award but a recognition of the enduring relationship between a family and their land—a relationship cultivated with care, respect, and a deep understanding of agricultural practices and tradition.

For over a hundred years, the Williams Family has tended their farm on the Mesa in Pueblo County, a region where the soil is rich, and the Bessemer Irrigation Ditch has conveyed snowmelt from the Arkansas River to the cultivated fields for generations. Their red brick storefront, established 87 years ago, has been more than a place of commerce. It was a living repository of the region’s agricultural knowledge. In this place, the wisdom of multiple generations was exchanged just as the seeds that passed from hand to hand. The family once offered 70 to 75 different types of seeds, from grasses to watermelons to vegetable and flower starter plants. 

For decades, the seed store has been a hub of activity in late February and early March as farmers and gardeners eagerly prepare for the upcoming season. Here, the past met the present in every seed packet, and the future was sown with each new crop, carrying forward the enduring legacy of the Williams Family's agricultural knowledge. Unfortunately, the storefront didn’t reopen for the 2023 growing season, and the farm went up for sale later that summer. 

The younger generation made the hard decision not to continue farming, but the Williams Family’s unwavering commitment to the land is not a matter of pride or profit but of profound responsibility—a recognition that they are but one link in a long chain of stewardship. The Williams have begun working with Palmer Land Conservancy to explore options to conserve the farm. Their work is guided by a deep respect for the natural world and an understanding that the land they farm is not merely a real estate asset but a place to care for, nurture, and to pass on to the next generation of farmers.

As the Williams shape the future of their farm, Dillon O’Hare, Palmer Land Conservancy’s senior manager of conservation, was proud to sit alongside the Williams and celebrate the family and their legacy at the Centennial Farm ceremony.