Immigrants -- West (U.S.)
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Voice Recording
Lieutenant Colonel John Bonforte talks about his enlistment in the US Army medical corps during World War I, and about his service in France, Germany, and Poland. His interview with David Sundal took place directly after the annual meeting of the Last Squad Club, which was an organization of World War I veterans in Mesa County. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums...
Format:
Voice Recording
Bernice Carney tells the story of her German immigrant parents and their homesteading life in Kansas and Collbran, Colorado. She also discusses her life growing up on a ranch, teaching in Glade Park, and her nurse’s training. 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
Mary Colosimo talks about the life of her Italian immigrant family on a truck farm in the Pomona area of Mesa County, Colorado. She also discusses her marriage to railroad man Charles Colosimo, his career with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, including his stints as a call-boy and an engineer, railroad disciplinary measures, and train accidents. Lorene Roice talks about what brought her to Grand Junction at the end of World War II, her husband’s...
Format:
Compound
Dorothy Tindall talks about the early days of Whitewater, Colorado as a rail center for cattle and stock. She speaks about the administrative organization of schools prior to the consolidation of Mesa County School District 51, her development of Mesa County’s first school hot lunch program at the Star School, games kids played at recess, about her work educating the children of migrant laborers who lived in La Colonia, and her role in the development...
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Voice Recording
Mary talks about her early childhood in Kansas as one of nine children and her family's move to Colorado upon the death of her father. Mary details the train and its passengers during the move, including Russian immigrants coming to work the beet fields, and her mother's outreach. She mentions her mothers career training riding horses as a way to support the family. She talks about her relationships, children, and the struggle she faced trying to...
Format:
Voice Recording
Jean Urruty discusses his time in Mesa County, the history of Basque people in the Western United States, and Basque culture. He also talks about his life as a sheepherder, discrimination he and other Basque people faced, and his eventual success as a hotel owner on Grand Junction's Colorado Avenue. 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
In an interview from May 14, 1981 (audio only, no transcript), Basil T. Knight talks about his youth in Michigan, meeting his wife’s family in Palisade, Colorado and ultimately moving there, operating a fruit farm, and becoming a lifelong teacher and school administrator. He explains the mechanisms that originally funded the many smaller school districts on the Western Slope, including taxes on railroads, and the reasons for the consolidation that...
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...
Format:
Voice Recording
Louis Balliger talks about his boyhood as the son of Swiss immigrants in early Twentieth century Telluride, Colorado. He also discusses his family’s struggles during the Great Depression, the influx of dust bowl refugees during that time, his career as a machinist, and his amateur woodworking hobby. His wife Elizabeth Balliger offers her occasional insights. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of...
Format:
Voice Recording
Mary Price discusses what she knew about Walter Walker and his family, impressions of Walker held by Mesa County residents, social events the Walkers were involved in, the presence of the Ku Klux Klan in Grand Junction, and the Typographical Union Strike. She also talks about her German immigrant father, his ownership of the prominent LaCourt Hotel in Grand Junction, and his fear of the Klan. This recording is made available via signed release by...
Format:
Voice Recording
Emma (Berg) Nagel discusses life in early Fruita as a student turned school teacher, and talks about the farm life of her family (her parents were immigrants from Sweden who settled in Western Colorado), with an extended description of her mother’s homemaking tasks. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Compound
Emma Nagel talks in detail about Christmas programs held at the Highpoint School near Fruita, Colorado and about Christmas traditions at home when she was a child. She also discusses her busy life as a homemaker, with information on butchering animals, grinding wheat and making bread, sewing and caring for clothes, caring for chickens and milking the cow. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa...
Format:
Compound
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.
Format:
Voice Recording
William Raber talks about his family’s ranch in the Kannah Creek area of Mesa County, Colorado, and about the development of reservoirs and water projects, beginning with the city of Grand Junction’s diversion of water from Kannah Creek around 1910. He also talks about traveling by train with cattle that he intended to sell in Los Angeles, and about discrimination that he experienced during World War I as the son of German immigrant. The interview...
Format:
Voice Recording
Dominick Arcieri talks about the experience of his Italian immigrant family in Mesa County, Colorado, and in general about the immigrant experience there. He also talks about his family's farm and his father's work raising tomatoes in the Las Colonias area for the Curry Canning Company. 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....
Format:
Voice Recording
Jean Urruty discusses his time in Mesa County, the history of Basque people in the Western United States, and Basque culture. 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
Alexander Guerrie talks about the life of his father Philip Guerrie, an Italian immigrant, pioneer and railroad worker in early Western Colorado. He also discusses his own railroad career and his immigrant family life. 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
Frances Felicia Mendicelli describes her immigration to the United States from Italy, settling in Grand Junction, Colorado, her early education in both Italy and Mesa County, and learning English. She also talks about Christmas, food and tradition in her Italian American family, and about her father’s job as a railroad section foreman and life in a railroad family. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
Format:
Voice Recording
Katherine Fuoco describes her family’s experience as German-Russian immigrants living in Loma, Colorado and elsewhere in the American West in the 1910’s and 20’s, raising sugar beets and homesteading. She also talks briefly about her life with husband James Fuoco, an Italian immigrant and car mechanic who went onto found the Fuoco Motor Company in Grand Junction, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project,...
Format:
Compound
This interview features Joe Peep, an early Fruita farmer, homesteader, and horse enthusiast. He also worked as a cowboy on Albert Turner’s ranch, and won the horse riding competition at Fruita’s Cowpuncher’s Reunion. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
