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A destructive tornado that went through downtown Grand Junction. It knocked down part of the YMCA building's facade, killing Alfred Gallup (The YMCA building was located between White and Rood Avenues on 5th Street).
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The celebration of Grand Junction’s 100th anniversary. Activities began in September of 1981, corresponding with the 100-year anniversary of the settlement of the first white people in Grand Junction after the forced expulsion and resettlement of the Ute Indians from the area. Activities continued into 1982.
Such activities included the recording of several radio plays about area history for the Grand Junction Centennial Celebration Radio History...
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The Grand Junction Lions Club was chartered in October of 1921 and immediately began raising money to help out various projects and organizations for the betterment of our community, including the early Grand Junction Junior College (now Colorado Mesa University).
The Grand Junction Lions Club still holds its annual Carnival and Parade (which first started in 1929) as its sole fundraiser and has given back more than $4,000,000 back to the local...
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Festivities held in 1957 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Grand Junction’s founding. It was organized by the Grand Junction Festival Company. Different events were held as part of the commemoration. In his oral history interview, radio broadcaster Robert “Bob” Collins recalls that he and three other men, including Paul Strout and Hank Vogt, dressed up like Doc Holiday and staged gunfights on Main Street against Audrey Thrailkill, Bill...
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In the 1950s, Grand Junction was thriving due to the Uranium Boom. Growth was expected to rise, and the arrival of commercial stores and shopping malls across America kick-started this forward-thinking initiative. Alongside Joe Lacy, Dale Hollingsworth, and Leland Schmidt, a city committee created a construction redesign for Main Street. Strides to make the area safe for pedestrians, as well as planning for parades, led to the winding path the street...
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An annual, professional rodeo that was held in Grand Junction, Colorado for several years. It was begun by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and taken over by the Mesa County Sheriff Posse in 1957. The rodeos were held on North Avenue at the location of a motor speedway (later the Kmart location at 2809 North Avenue), at the fairgrounds in Lincoln Park, and later at Uranium Downs, the Mesa County Fairgrounds location in Orchard Mesa. It was considered...
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in Grand Junction: An annual celebration, held at the Handy Chapel, which began as an hour-long event around 1982. The event was founded and is still run by the Black Citizens and Friends organization (BCF). The founders of BCF, young African-Americans like David Combs, wanted an event that would teach their children and community members about Black History. The event disappeared for a few years, but resumed...
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A fire on June 27, 1943 that was caused by the heating of U.S. Army munitions aboard a freight train during World War II.
Raymond Edward Myers was a carman who worked for the D&RG. According to Myers, he was sent by the railroad to Rifle to repair a car on a West-bound ammunition train that day. He did so, and he and the crew rode the train to Grand Junction. Just past De Beque, the crew noticed a hotbox (an overheated axle) in a car in the middle...
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A series of concerts run first by Walter Walker in the 1920’s, and later by music teacher and promotor Marie Treece after her arrival at Mesa College (now Colorado Mesa University). Under Walker’s leadership, musicians played primarily in Lincoln Park. Treece brought musicians to Houston Hall and other venues. Musicians that played in the community concert series included Al Jolson, Ethel Barrymore, John Philip Sousa, Barnie Oldfield, Roland Hayes,...
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Sometime after the release of the silent movie short The Great Train Robbery in 1903, it became the first motion picture shown in Grand Junction, Colorado [circa 1905-1910]. The movie was shown in a tent in an open area between White and Grand Avenue east of 7th Street. Sound effects were provided by a man standing outside the tent and firing blanks from a six-gun during the battle scenes.
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400 demonstrators marched into a meeting of Grand Junction’s city council and demanded that council people let them speak. According to activist Shannon Robinson, with the organization Right and Wrong that organized the march in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Right & Wrong had contacted a city councilmember and let it be known that they would be marching on the meeting. Yet several council members were surprised at the large crowd of people...
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A strike of the Typographical Union protesting the lack of a signed contract with The Daily Sentinel newspaper. The strike was not concerned with wages. Rather, the Union insisted that The Daily Sentinel agree to union control of the Composing Room, following what some who worked there saw as meddling from publisher Preston Walker and the Advertising Department of the newspaper. According to Mesa County Oral History Project interviewee Robert Eugene...
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A speech made during Barack Obama’s campaign for a second term in office.
*Photograph is the official presidential photo of Barack Obama.
15) Al Look Day
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A holiday on June 16, 1972 named for Al Look by the city of Grand Junction.
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A convention that was held during the month of October in Grand Junction, Colorado during the early Twentieth century. It may have begun when the Colorado Education Association Teacher's Meeting was held in Grand Junction (the first of the statewide organization's to be held there). It was continued as a locally organized event in later years.
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A long-running high school marching band competition of mostly Western Slope bands held annually in Grand Junction, Colorado. It was preceded by the Western Slope Marching Band Competition, and first organized by Wyatt Wood of the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce. Bands marched in a parade on Main Street, and then compete in a field competition at Lincoln Park.
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A livestock event and competition for youth, put on by the Agricultural Committee of the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce, and the Mesa County chapters of 4-H and the Future Farmers of America (the Mesa County Junior Livestock Show, which is now part of the County Fair, may be the continuation of this event).
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The fiftieth reunion event of the Fruita Union High School's graduating class of 1927 was held on June 11-12, 1977 at Hawthorn Park and other locations in Grand Junction, Colorado. During the portion of the event in Hawthorne Park, the Mesa County Oral History Project interviewed and recorded assenting attendees.
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An annual event celebrating the strawberry harvest of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It began in 1898, and is ongoing. According to the Glenwood Springs Visitor’s Center, it is the longest continually held civic celebration west of the Mississippi River. It began as an agricultural festival. At one time, a bicycle race between Grand Junction and Glenwood was held as part of the festival.
