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He was born in Michigan and received a BS Degree from Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) in 1918. He spent the years of 1913-14 running cattle on the Grand Mesa with Clarence Nichols, then returned to Michigan for school. After graduation, he briefly joined the army during World War One, but contracted Tuberculosis and was released. Due to health reasons, doctors advised him to move to a drier climate.
He took the train...
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Voice Recording
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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The Museums of Western Colorado is the largest multi-disciplinary museum between Salt Lake City and Denver. Over the past fifty years they have grown to include three major museum facilities – Cross Orchards Historic Site, Dinosaur Journey Museum, and the Museum of the West; a respected research library – the Loyd Files Research Library; and four active outdoor paleontology sites. They offer a multitude of programs featuring dinosaur expeditions,...
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Person
She was born in Knoxville, TN and moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1906, when she was eight years old. Her father, Gentry L. Key, was advised to move to the West for his health. She went to school at Pear Park Elementary. Her father died when she was quite young and her mother bought a five acre tract of land. As a result, Ruth and her siblings took any sort of seasonal agricultural work that was offered, including tending the smudge pots for local...
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Person
She was born to Joseph Elvain Harris and Jennie Laura (Jackson) Harris in De Beque, Colorado. Her family moved to what became known as the Harris Ranch on the Grand Mesa in 1904, when she was two. The ranch was located on land her grandfather John Jackson had homestead in the 1880's, near Plateau Creek. During the events of the Meeker Massacre in 1879, Josephine Meeker and her children were held on what later became the Harris Ranch.
The family...
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Person
He was born in Salem, Missouri to Francis Marion Shults and Levina (Wempler) Shults. His father was a farmer and his mother was a homemaker. He grew up in Salem and Springfield, where he attended a teacher's college.
He took a teaching position at the Loma School in Mesa County, Colorado in 1902. He worked as a schoolteacher in Pear Park from 1903-1904. He married fellow Pear Park teacher Daisy De Genira Hosey, also from Missouri, on February...
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Voice Recording
During a Mesa County Public Library program, Michael Husband speaks about the many cultural activities in early Grand Junction and Mesa County, Colorado, including music, dance, and theater. He names top performers who came to Grand Junction, including the Russian Ballet, John Philip Sousa, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony. He discusses the role of Walter Walker in supporting and promoting the arts. He lists the many venues that...
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Voice Recording
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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Voice Recording
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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Compound
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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Voice Recording
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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Compound
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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Compound
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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Voice Recording
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....
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Voice Recording
Kate Elizabeth (Phillips) Wills talks about her childhood living in What Cheer, Iowa, and her family’s move to Colorado in 1909. She talks about her family’s orchard, her education, the activities she took part in as a young person, and how she met her husband. She describes her career as a farm wife and homemaker working on peach orchards and cleaning homes in the Grand Valley, the history of churches in Palisade, and migrant workers that worked...
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Compound
Thelma Moore talks about her youth on a fruit farm in Pear Park, life in early Grand Junction, her involvement in 4-H clubs, the Locust Ranch fruit growing operation in Clifton, and the other members of the Kettle family to settle in that area. She discusses her career as a seamstress and work making drapes, county extension work with quilters, craft competitions at the Mesa County Fair, and chautauquas and variety shows. She also goes into her life...
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Voice Recording
Virgil Hickman and his wife discuss their lives growing up around Mesa County. Virgil’s grandfather began as a miner in Palisade and Cameo, Colorado, and his family turned to fruit farming. Hickman describes planting the first fruit orchard on East Orchard Mesa, the labor involved with peach growing, and the development of the area. He touches on the businesses, social scene, and Christmas celebrations in Palisade during the early 1900s. The interview...
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Voice Recording
Early Mesa County resident Fred Hulburt discusses his job as a postman, the difficulties of starting a fruit farming business, his views on the treatment of the Utes in the area, building tunnels for the Highline Canal above Cameo, methods used to prevent the codling moth from ruining fruit orchards, and how to properly break wild horses and mules. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
