Mesa County (Colo.) -- History
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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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During a panel discussion of the Mesa County Historical Society, Kenneth Baird discusses the settlement and incorporation of Grand Junction, the creation of the Grand Junction Town Company, early city government, town building, and early municipal ordinances. Professor Don Mackendrick talks about James W. Bucklin’s draft of a new city charter in 1910, which established a commission form of government. He mentions progressive reforms that put the...
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Al Look talks about his involvement with the International Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives, about his On Guard column in the Daily Sentinel, about taking the first aerial photographs of the Grand Mesa, and about the history of the Avalon Theater. He also discusses getting lost while hunting agates, the Lincoln Park Zoo, John Otto’s construction of trails on the Grand Mesa, and other aspects of Mesa County history. The interview was...
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Penelope Eberhart talks about her father Harry Brown’s introduction to oil shale while on a family vacation in Denver in the 1920’s, his subsequent move to the De Beque area on the Western Slope, and his early business venture in oil shale with the Index Oil Shale Company. She speaks about the mining and milling process for shale, and about a biproduct of the milling process marketed as plant fertilizer called Index Soil Vitalizer. She talks about...
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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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Dick Lloyd talks about cattle ranching in Western Colorado both before and after the Taylor Grazing Act, about moving cattle around to different grazing areas in Colorado, and about shipping them to Denver by rail via the De Beque Stockyard. He speaks about training horses and using horses to herd cattle. Bertha Lloyd discusses her courtship with Dick, their chivaree and their marriage. The two of them describe homesteading in a log cabin on the Grand...
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Dave Fishell, Karl Johnson, and James Carter discuss the history of law enforcement in Mesa County in a panel discussion sponsored by the Mesa County Historical Society. 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.
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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...
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In a two-part interview carried out over two days, Howard Shults talks about his experiences as a rancher and auctioneer on Colorado’s Western Slope. In part one, he talks about the arrival of his parents in Mesa County in 1903, their teaching careers at Pear Park and in Fruita, and his father’s move to a career as an auctioneer. He speaks about his childhood in Grand Junction and Collbran, his graduation from Grand Junction High School in 1923,...
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In this interview with Agnes Wright, early Mesa County resident, she discusses growing up in Grand Junction, Colorado and working with her family at the Colorado Telephone Company. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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In the sixth, seventh and eighth of nine recordings, John Goulet, a former advertising salesman with the Daily Sentinel newspaper, relates his experiences and travels in Grand Junction and Western Colorado in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In the sixth recording, he talks about the people of the Daily Sentinel and some events that took place in Grand Junction during that time. During the seventh recording, he remembers a humorous, nonsense article written...
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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.
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Leonard Lewis recalls his upbringing in Gateway, Colorado. He remembers being drafted into the US Army, being stationed for nearly one and a half years at Fort Carson, and his eventual transfer to Vietnam in 1968 with replacement troops for the 9th Infantry Division in Ben Hoa. He describes patrolling the countryside with his reconnaissance unit and working as the radio operator to the forward observer. He talks about working with a mortar unit and...
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In a three-part interview conducted over three days, Luisa Landini describes her childhood in Montale, Italy and her life after immigrating to the United States. In part one, she talks about life in Italy, working on a farm and in the fields, and her immigration to the United States via ship at the age of twenty-two. She talks about coming to America to marry Pete Landini and her homesickness for Italy when she arrived. She speaks about the family’s...
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Glenn McFall discusses downtown businesses and business owners in Grand Junction, Colorado, as well as the shoe store he worked at for nine years, McConnell-Lowes. Glenn also talks about the involvement of the Ku Klux Klan in the Grand Valley area, the Mesa County Pest House and Smallpox outbreaks, the social scene and where people went to go dancing, the Mesa County Fair, horse racing and gambling, bailing rowdy cowboys out of the local jail, Eddie...
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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...
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Early Fruitvale resident Velma E. Budin discusses the history of Fruitvale and Fruitvale High School, the extensive pioneering history of the Borschell family in the Grand Valley, the biographies of several prominent Fruitvale families, fruit farming, and early irrigation methods of the Grand Valley. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
*Photograph...
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Bessie Jane Milholland talks about her childhood growing up on a ranch in Molina, Colorado and how her family earned a living selling butter and other dairy goods. She describes trips to Grand Junction in horse and buggy, trading and selling handmade goods, and her education at the rural Molina School. She talks about her eventual move to Grand Junction after marrying her husband, Danford Wheeler, their life there, and the tasks of a homemaker. She...
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Eugene Rowley discusses his grandfather and father who started and operated the Palisade Mine in 1905, and details his own involvement in the peach industry in Palisade, Colorado. He also talks about the town’s history and his boyhood there, with information about such things as a fatal rockslide that hit a train, Palisade’s schools, and his ownership of an early silent movie theater. His wife Margery Rowley chimes in with the occasional insight....
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Albert Phillips Jr. talks about the life of his father, a founder of the United Fruit Growers Association, and about his own career working for the cooperative. He discusses the history of the UFGA and other area fruit growers’ cooperatives, and about the history of fruit growing in Palisade, Colorado. He speaks about migrant workers and German prisoners of war used to harvest fruit during the Depression, and about changes in fruit production, packing...
