The Meeker area has a rich history shaped first by the Ute Indians, the area's first people, and later by white settlers who began homesteading, ranching, and farming there in the late 1800s. As the county seat of Rio Blanco County, Meeker grew out of the Military Camp on the White River, an Army base established to keep peace after the conflict between the Ute Indians and Indian Agent Nathan Meeker on September 29, 1879, the last conflict of the 1800s in which the military was called upon to intervene. The military presence ended in 1883, by which time ranching, farming, and commerce were already established in the valley, and these pursuits, along with energy extraction, tourism, and recreation, continue to sustain the community.