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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 Living History in...
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Len and Violet Haseman talk about newspaper research they undertook concerning the history of Cross Orchards farm in Mesa County, Colorado. 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 1932 David Henry Hickman High School yearbook.
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Madge Davis discusses her teenage years in the 1910’s working on the Cross Ranch in Mesa County, thinning peaches and packing peaches with her mom and dad. She describes fruit growing operations on the farm. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of the Mesa County Public Library and the Museum of Western Colorado.
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Priscella Broderson describes life as a homemaker on an apple farm in Clifton, Colorado in the early Twentieth century. She discusses apple processing and packing, cooking on a coal stove, getting water from the Highline Canal and washing clothes. She also talks about her early life in Grand Junction, including her schooling, working at the Fair Store, and Christmas celebrations. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project,...
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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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Ruth Hoffman talks about her teen and young adult years spent packing fruit for Cross Orchards and other farms in Mesa County, Colorado. She describes the work involved in fruit packing, lighting smudge pots, picking fruit, the change in the kinds of jobs women did on the farm over time, and life on the farm. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of the Mesa County Public Library and the Museum of Western...
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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...
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C.H. Buttolph describes his time working in Cross Orchards and the process of caring for a large orchard of pear trees. C.H. also describes his journey from Michigan to Colorado, and the frustration felt by fruit growers trying to exterminate the codling moth. 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.
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Howard Shults talks about his career as an auctioneer in Mesa County, Colorado. He also discusses the history of people, places and businesses throughout the county, including the Cross Orchard and the Vernon Z. Reed Ranch. Shults’ wife, Helen Shults, gives her occasional insight. 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...
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An interview with Howard Shults, a longtime resident of Mesa County who worked as an auctioneer, farmer, and member of the state land commission. He discusses the business of corralling horses, horse trading, racing horses for money, the Cross Ranch, and social events such as rodeos, fairs, and dances. He also talks about hauling coal in a horse-drawn wagon and the history of coal mines in the valley, about the history of the old fairgrounds at Lincoln...
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Lyn Lampert lectures about the Little Book Cliff Railway before a meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society (MCHS). In addition, the MCHS votes affirmatively on two resolutions to aid in the preservation of important local history sites. In the first, the MCHS votes to aid in the preservation of the Handy Chapel in Grand Junction, Colorado (the only surviving church building from the 1880s and the longtime home of the African Methodist Church)....
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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....
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Local African-American activist David Combs talks about his reaction when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008 and 2012. He remembers feeling the audience’s excitement during Obama’s campaign speeches at Cross Orchards and Grand Junction High School. He speaks about Obama’s role in leading the nation’s discussion on race through incidents such as the death of Trayvon Martin. He discusses discrimination towards Obama...
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In a lecture for the Mesa County Historical Society, Harry Talbott talks about the history of his family in Palisade, Colorado. He also speaks about the history of fruit growing in Palisade and Mesa County, from its inception in the late 1800’s until 1982, when his talk took place. He details the history of fruit growing cooperatives in the Grand Valley and methods of marketing and shipping produce. He discusses the Peach mosaic disease, other challenges...
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Local artist and former director of the Art Center of Western Colorado Dave Davis talks about his beginnings as an artist and his move to Grand Junction, Colorado from Boulder. He speaks about his role in creating Art on the Corner, Grand Junction’s outdoor sculpture exhibit, in 1984. He discusses his directorship of the Art Center, which began in 1986, and his role in helping the organization gain financial solvency and regain regional relevance...
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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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In a lecture and panel discussion at the Palisade’s Taylor Elementary School, Evelyn Kyle speaks about the history of the Mesa County Oral History Project and its invaluable role in collecting local stories. An interview panel of Evelyn Kyle, Paula Buttolph, Mary Faye Hampton, and Luella Morgan speak about their lives, the lives of women in the area, and Western Slope history. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County...
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Ann Stokes talks about homesteading on East Orchard Mesa after her family moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1904. She remembers her father working on the “fancy” masonry for the Grand Junction train station. She recalls living in a one-room log cabin and sharing that cabin with a horse for an evening. She speaks about the development of irrigation on East Orchard Mesa and her father’s peach orchard. She describes walking with her siblings four...
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Mary Cox talks about her education at the Bryant School and elsewhere in Grand Junction, about corsets and other aspects of school fashion, the history of the Riverside Neighborhood, attending community dances and Glenwood Springs’ Strawberry Days, and boys swimming in the Colorado River. She also discusses old downtown businesses, going to movies at the Majestic Theater, a brothel that advertised at the Mesa County Fairgrounds during a baseball...
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Charlotte (Jackson) Claar describes growing up on a homestead in Cheyenne County, Colorado, where the family witched for water, built an adobe house, and held jack rabbit drives. She speaks about moving to Grand Valley, Colorado (now Parachute) in 1920. She talks about her 37-year career as a teacher and then principal in Grand Valley, at the Clifton School, and at the Fruitvale School. She discusses her father and husband’s careers on the railroad....