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In 1892, this society met up twice a month, except in the summer months when it only met once a month. The society put on plays in the DeBeque school house. The funds from the plays, usually 30 to 40 dollars, were saved and put towards projects for the school. The secretary’s journal of the DeBeque Literary Society noted that funds went towards cups for the students, a Piano, construction of a stage, and were given to families in need.
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The De Beque school district was born from the consolidation of several smaller school districts in 1949-50. Originally, the De Beque area was to be part of what later became Mesa County Valley School District 51. However, since De Beque schools received 50% of their student body from Garfield County, inclusion in the Mesa County District was deemed problematic. Therefore, De Beque formed its own school district, known as the Joint District because...
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Company founded by Dr. W.A.E. de Beque, William R. Warren, George Newton, D.D. Potter, Bob de Beque, and William Dinkel to locate and patent oil shale claims on the Western Slope. Oral history interviewee Armand de Beque recalled the painstaking process his father went through to survey and file claims, only to find out that they had overlapped with somebody else’s claims, requiring him to start over. After filing the claims, they were required...
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An oil company that held 18,000 acres of oil shale near De Beque, Colorado as of 1920. However, they ignored it in favor of a liquid oil strike in California. Union Oil became Unocal, and Unocal in turn was bought by Chevron and ceased independent operations.
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An oil company founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1870. It held 24,000 acres of patented land containing oil shale near De Beque, Colorado. In 1931, they sold the land for $5 an acre. The company was dissolved by court decision in 1911.
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A women’s club from Fruita, Colorado. At one time, the club was believed to have more than 50 active members. According to oral history interviewee Armand de Lavillette de Beque, the club was very active in drama and agricultural events. The club would put on plays in the Majestic Theater in Fruita. The club put on many plays from 1929-1932, with fundraising from the events going towards projects focused on bettering the community. Members included...
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An irrigation district, founded in 1904, serving the Orchard Mesa area of Mesa County, Colorado. it administers the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District Canal, which provides water to East Orchard Mesa and the Vinelands area of Palisade. The canal takes water from the Grand Valley Diversion Dam in De Beque Canyon. According to oral history interviewee Virgil Hickman, the district began providing customers water on a pro-rated basis beginning around 1940....
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A utility service that generates distributes and sells electricity in Colorado. Currently, it's a subsidiary of Xcel Energy.
According to William "Bill" Rump, his father Charles Rump served as the local manager in the 1920's or 1930's. According to longtime employee Robert Gustafson, the company consisted of different divisions organized by region. By 1945, when Gustafson was office manager of the Grand Junction division (formed in the late 1920’s...
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A company established in 1921 by Harry Lewis Brown, who had sold his Wrigley’s chewing gum factory in New Jersey in order to fund the venture, reportedly starting with an initial capital investment of $100,000. The company’s first mine was based above the Roan Creek Valley, half a mile from the eventual placement of the Roan Creek Community Hall. The company mined the oil shale from Mount Blaine (also known as Mount Index). A tramway brought the...
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A district that began in 1883, shortly after the formation of Mesa County from territory that had previously belonged to Gunnison County. Previous to the official creation of the district, the first school board was elected on June 1, 1882, before the Grand Junction City Government had even been elected. Harrison Edward Stroud, W.M. McKelvey, and O.D. Russell were members of the first board. Stroud served as the superintendent of schools (1881).
The...
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A bank founded in 1905. At the time of its inception, J.J. Durkee was the bank president and Herman W. Kluge was a bank director. T.W. Bowman became president of the bank in 1910, shortly after the institution had constructed a new building on Main Street and was in danger of insolvency. He helped keep the bank solvent and remained the president until 1942.
According to oral history interviewee Luella Morgan, who worked for the Producers Exchange...
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The Mesa County Valley School District 51 was formed on November 27, 1950 from sixteen smaller school districts in Mesa County. These smaller districts, in turn, had formed as the result of prior consolidations. With the exception of De Beque and Plateau Valley, which formed their own school districts, every geographical area in the county became part of District 51. The District elected its first school board and appointed its first superintendent,...
