East of Greeley, where the Cache la Poudre and South Platte rivers meet, a 35-acre parcel of farmland has quietly changed hands. Longtime owner Bob Tokuyasu sold the property to the City of Greeley, not to cash out on a prime piece of riverfront, but to make sure his grandparents’ story is etched into the landscape forever.
The city bought the land at its appraised value of $300,000, and the deal comes with strings attached in the best possible way. The deed requires Greeley to build a memorial that honors Tokuyasu’s grandparents and acknowledges the site’s history. For now, the land will keep operating as farmland under an existing lease that runs through December 31, 2028, so tractors will keep rolling while the city figures out what comes next.
The sale shifts the property into public ownership and sets it up for future planning talks about trails, access, and commemoration. As The Colorado Sun reported, Tokuyasu said he wanted the site preserved as a place to tell his family’s story.
That story reaches back to World War II. Tokuyasu’s grandparents left California amid the wartime uprooting that followed Executive Order 9066 and resettled in Colorado, a history he says weighed heavily on his decision to protect the land. "I learned, later on, that it was a pretty special place," Tokuyasu told The Colorado Sun.
The broader arc of that era includes the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which authorized reparations for eligible former internees, generally $20,000 per person, as documented by the National Archives. For Tokuyasu, locking this land into public hands with a required memorial is another kind of redress, one that plays out on the banks of two Colorado rivers.
Trail Planners Eye A Long-Sought Link At The Rivers’ Meeting Point
Local trail advocates have had their eyes on this spot for years. The meeting point of the Cache la Poudre and South Platte has long been seen as the natural endpoint for pushing the Poudre River Trail farther east through Weld County.
The trail corridor’s own materials describe a 21-mile paved route that currently runs between Greeley and Windsor, a kind of regional backbone for walkers, runners, and cyclists. The City of Greeley’s Trails Master Plan update, published on StoryMaps, highlights extending that access toward the rivers’ confluence, framing the Tokuyasu parcel as a strategic piece of the puzzle.
With the land now in public hands, that long-discussed extension no longer feels hypothetical. The property sits exactly where planners have been drawing lines on maps, and the sale quietly nudges those plans a step closer to reality.
Designing A Memorial And Opening The Gate
Because the deed requires a memorial, Greeley will need to team up with community groups, historians, and trail advocates to figure out what that looks like and how people will reach it once the farm lease ends. Friends have floated ideas inspired by Longmont’s Tower of Compassion at Kanemoto Park, a public monument presented to residents in 1973 that recognizes local support for Japanese American families, according to the City of Longmont.
That kind of visible acknowledgment is exactly what Tokuyasu has been pushing for. A memorial at the rivers, tied directly to his grandparents’ displacement and resettlement, would turn a quiet confluence into a place that tells a larger story about Colorado and the country.
At the same time, the city has to juggle multiple priorities on the ground. The sale secures public ownership while balancing habitat, existing hunting easements, and ongoing agricultural use. Planners and neighbors will have to sort out how to thread those interests with new trail access and a public memorial without losing what makes the place feel wild, and working at the same time.
For residents and historians watching the deal, the arrangement feels like a rare win on several fronts. It protects a scenic stretch of riverside, moves a key trail connection closer to happening, and sets the stage for Tokuyasu’s grandparents to finally get the public recognition he has long wanted, right where two rivers meet.
