Great Depression
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Alfred Flagg discusses his life in early Mesa County as a barber owning his own beauty shop, how the Great Depression affected local businesses, and the social activities in Grand Junction during the 1920’s and 30’s. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Andrew E. Riddle discusses working for the National Guard during a miner’s strike in southern Colorado, the Ludlow Massacre, the horrible mining conditions faced by miners, the joys and woes of cattle ranching and farming, how the Great Depression effected cattle business and personal finances, and purchasing lambs and sheep from the Navajo Indians in New Mexico. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
Format:
Voice Recording
Local historian David Sundal talks about the history of Grand Junction, Colorado’s First Church of the Nazarene and about his father Olaf Sundal, a clergyman who presided over the church for many years, beginning in 1930. He talks about the role of local churches in providing food relief to local people and to Dust Bowl migrants during the Great Depression. He also speaks about the row of churches on White Avenue and about the history of churches...
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Voice Recording
Gladys Gross, who grew up on an apple farm at the intersection of North Avenue and 12th Street, talks about her father’s residential development of their farm land. She discusses old businesses in town, including the icehouses utilized by the railroad near Third Street and how they burned down. She also talks about the desperation and hunger of people during the Great Depression, her work with New Deal programs, the route of the Little Book Cliff...
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Voice Recording
Howard McMullin discusses the history of early Grand Junction businesses and buildings, and biographies of early Grand Junction business people. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
*Photograph from the 1916 Grand Junction High School yearbook of Howard McMullin as a sophomore.
Format:
Compound
Oscar Jaynes discusses childhood memories of Clifton, Colorado, including life on his family’s homestead, a time he climbed inside a giant tire and rolled down a desert hill, and a boxing match at school with future Colorado Supreme Court justice Jim Groves. He then relates tales of traveling the country on freight cars trying to find work during the Great Depression. Oscar also talks a great deal about the fruit business, specifically the peach...
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Voice Recording
Glenn W. McFall relates a tale of riding the rails during the Depression as a teenager and getting food and help from a prostitute in Salida, Colorado. He also talks in general about prostitution in Grand Junction and the American West. He discusses the Land's End Hill Climb auto race, prominent physicians and businessmen of early Grand Junction, the shoe trade, button shoes and women's fashion. He then talks about Chipeta's visits to the McConnell-Lowes...
Format:
Compound
Helen Johnson talks about helping teach a WPA-funded dance class during the Great Depression. She speaks about other government programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, and how they helped the people of Mesa County, Colorado during the Great Depression. She describes working for Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles to manufacture airplanes during World War II, where she became the lead in her section. She talks about her brief career teaching...
Format:
Voice Recording
To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play The CCC in Mesa County.
This...
Format:
Voice Recording
To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play The Great Depression.
This...
Format:
Compound
Cordelia Files talks about the history of her family as early homesteaders in Mesa County, Colorado. She remembers life in Fruita in the early Twentieth century. She recalls working on a ranch near De Beque for her first job at the age of fifteen. She speaks about her life as a teacher instructing all eight grades in a one-room school house, about different episodes from her career in education (including the time a cat came to school), and about...
Format:
Video
Evelyn Kyle, the first coordinator of the Mesa County Oral History Project, discusses her role in expanding the program shortly after its inception in 1976, and describes colorful personalities that she met through the project. She also talks about her life in the performing arts, establishing and acting in community theaters around Western Colorado, about her experiences during the Dust Bowl and World War II, and about her marriage to Jim Kyle and...
Format:
Voice Recording
Florence Shambeau describes her life as an orphan in Washington State after her father’s second wife rejected her. She also talks about her skill as a seamstress, her work as a homemaker caring for family and boarders, and her life living around the American West. 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.
Format:
Voice Recording
Frosty Tilton describes his career as a banker in Palisade and Grand Junction, Colorado. He talks about bank closures and runs on banks during the Great Depression, the economic impact of the peach industry, and the history of local fruit grower cooperatives. 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.
*Photo...
Format:
Compound
Former Grand Junction Fire Chief Frank Kreps describes living in a one-room log cabin on his parents’ Roan Creek homestead as a young boy in the 1910’s, the feeling of community among the scattered residents, and a sawmill that provided lumber to residents. He talks about his father’s career as a locomotive engineer for the Uintah Railway and the Denver & Rio Grande. He remembers having to split wood for all the sick families in Atchee during...
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Voice Recording
Gladys Earnest talks about her job as a home demonstration agent in Garfield County and Mesa County, Colorado, helping rural people with soap-making, canning, and other personal, social, and economic development issues during the Great Depression. She also talks about the history of Glenwood Springs, her husband’s construction career, horseback trips to Trapper’s Lake and other excursions. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History...
Format:
Voice Recording
Harold Stafford talks about coming to Western Colorado during the Great Depression to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). He describes working on the construction of Rim Rock Drive as part of the Colorado National Monument CCC camp. He discusses the Rim Rock Drive road-building disaster, in which nine men were killed by a mistimed blast. He speaks about Rod Day, the education coordinator in the camp, and a former newspaper man who had murdered...
Format:
Compound
Harold Kissell talks about being born in a coal camp near New Castle, Colorado, his career working as a coal miner and foreman in Cameo, and his father’s career as a coal miner for the Colorado Fuel and Iron company. He tells the story of the Vulcan Mine and the mine explosions that killed many men. He recounts the superstition that women inside a mine brought bad luck. He speaks of the diverse workforce in local coal mines, including African-Americans...
Format:
Voice Recording
Harold Zimmerman describes packing fruit during harvest time in the Clifton area, spraying for codling moths, the end of early apple farming in the valley, the train of wagons used to haul fruit on the Midland Trail at harvest time and about a flash flood that devastated Cross Orchards and destroyed 31 Road. He also talks about his career in bookkeeping for Mesa County Valley School District 51 and other organizations, the run on local banks during...
Format:
Compound
Joe, Mike and Ida Peep discuss their family’s Italian heritage, the history of their pioneer family in Fruita, and life as young people in Western Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
