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In the May-June 2023 newsletter of the Mesa County Historical Society, Ruth G. Moss discusses early sheriffs in Mesa County and early marshals in Grand Junction. She talks about jail breaks, cattle rustling, shootings on the range, prostitution, vice, and the murder of popular gambling parlor owner J.W. “Big Kid” Eames.
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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 Aces and Eights, which...
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Roy Dinkins, co-owner of Costanzas Liquor Store in Grand Junction, Colorado during the 1930’s, talks in detail about the murder of Biltmore gambling hall owner J.W. “Big Kid” Eames. He describes special investigator Walter Byron’s involvement in the case, the community’s reaction to the murder, and the trial. He also speaks about his upbringing in Salida. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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Al Look talks about taking groups of teachers on tours of the Colorado National Monument and about the history of Grand Junction’s Avalon Theater. He describes the Biltmore, a gambling hall on Main Street owned by J.W. “Big Kid” Eames, and the murder of Eames by dance hall owner and would-be robber Fern “Bubbles” Sadler. He also discusses Pretty Boy Floyd’s brief stay at the Yellow Jacket in Delta, Colorado and his frequenting of Grand...
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Abandoned buildings, mine camps, and towns, oh my! Librarian Ike shares the secret past of Mesa County Ghost Towns. Librarian Noel discusses the re-initiation of the Oral History Project, a partnership with the Museums of Western Colorado, and the rich local history available at Mesa County Libraries!
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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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Marie (Becker) Young talks about her experience living in Germany for a year, and the early days of fruit farming in Mesa County, Colorado. Marie also discusses the early history of Orchard Mesa, her social and work life as a teenager, the business of cattle driving and roundups with her husband in Utah, and her life as a homemaker. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the...
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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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Fritz Becker, a former officer in the Grand Junction Police Department, discusses crime in Grand Junction, including: murders, the clean-up of prostitution and vice on Colorado Avenue, gambling houses and bootlegging. 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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Lydia (Sitzman) Parker, a nurse practitioner in Telluride, Colorado, describes her experiences in medicine and those of her husband, Joseph James Parker, a medical doctor in Telluride and Grand Junction. 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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Dudley W. Mitchell gives an account of the Lamar Bank Robbery of 1928, and discusses the role of Grand Junction, Colorado resident George Abshier in the crime. He also talks about his teenage years working for the Holly Sugar Company in Grand Junction and describes the process by which the factory made sugar from sugar beets. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums...
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Dorsey G. Son discusses his career as a surveyor for the Colorado State Highway Commission operating in Southwestern Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.