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Elsie Cockrell talks about her life in the mining town of Idaho Springs, about her career as a beautician and later a teacher, and about the life of her parents as the children of German immigrants and farmers. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.

Ica Click talks about life on a homestead in the Kannah Creek area of Mesa County, Colorado in the early Twentieth century. She discusses going to the Purdy Mesa School, social activities, the people of Kannah Creek and Whitewater, homemaking, caring for animals, and home remedies. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado....

Josephine Biggs discusses her memories of Cross Orchards and owner “Colonel” Bill Cross, horseback riding excursions, and the LaCourt Hotel. She also talks about her work with the YWCA during a time when many young girls were “getting out of hand with all the boys coming home” from World War I, Lincoln Park and Lincoln Park School, her husband’s development of the Lincoln Park Neighborhood, and some details of the home they lived in there....

Minnie Ann Roberts discusses moving from Iowa to a homestead in Montrose County, Colorado in the early 1900s. Minnie explains the social scene near Bedrock, memories of her wedding, hope chest, baby showers and shivarees. She also talks about canning meat, preserving other foods, doing the wash, making her own clothes, and taking care of her family at the homestead. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History...

Glenn McFall talks about his various jobs around Mesa County and about witnessing the unveiling of Christo’s Valley Curtain installation in Rifle Gap. He also discusses fishing and battling snow storms on the Grand Mesa, the deer population around Mesa County, his experiences during childhood growing up in Clifton, the old Midland Trail automobile route, drinking and making bootleg whiskey, Italian-Americans making bootleg wine, the Book Cliff Railway,...

Alice Johnson discusses the pioneering history of her family in Kansas. She then talks about growing tomatoes and working in the greenhouses with her husband on their family farm in Mesa County, about attending Ross Business College, jobs she held subsequent to her education, and her friends and social life. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the...

Gertrude Rader talks about the New Deal and its effect on her farm in Loma, Colorado. She then describes at length the migration of Ute tribal members from the Ouray/Silverton area to Eastern Utah every fall in the early Twentieth century, their camping near Rader's childhood home in Kannah Creek, and her observations of the Ute people. She also discusses her family's pioneer history in the Whitewater/Kannah Creek area, her time teaching in rural...

Dorothy Ottman discusses her childhood in Grand Junction, fruit growing and agricultural industry in Mesa County, and the social life and customs of women, youth, and others in the Grand Junction area. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.

Howard Shults talks about life growing up in Collbran, Colorado in the early Twentieth century, including farming, local schools and his father’s teaching career in “trouble” schools, local people, and his juvenile hijinks. He also discusses breaking horses, “leaded horses” exposed to the pesticide lead arsenic, wild horses, raising and driving hogs from Collbran to De Beque, and winning the Ft. Logan Military Training School boxing championship....

In this recording, Alta Nolan reads the memoirs of Cordelia Files. Files talks about the history of her parents and maternal grandparents who homesteaded in the Fruita, Colorado area in the 1890’s. She describes the fruit growing operation on the homestead. She recounts seeing the Ute people and Chipeta when they came in the fall to dry fruit from the orchard. She remembers early Fruita, with its dirt streets and plank sidewalks. She speaks about...