DRIVE-THRU / CURBSIDE PICKUP

Passwords are now required to access your account. To create a password, select "Reset my Password" from the Login screen (email address required). For further assistance, please visit the Library Account Passwords FAQ page for instructions or call the library at 970-243-4442.

The Central Library will be closed March 31 for Easter Sunday. View all holiday closures.


Showing 1 - 19 of 19 , query time: 0.02s
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
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 Christmas Memories,...
Cover Image
Format:
Compound
In this program of the Museums of Western Colorado’s Museum Folklore Series, Robert Johnson, a longtime professor at Colorado Mesa University, talks about American Folklore and oral tradition, and about the folklore of the American West and Western Colorado. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Al Look talks about singing in a quartet, publishing books on Mesa County history, and fishing. He also discusses various people and places of the Western Slope. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, A collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Dr. Andrew Gulliford, head of The Country School Legacy Project (a survey of rural schools over eight states, funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities) presents information from the project in a lecture at the Museum of Western Colorado. The lecture includes reflections from rural school teachers in Colorado, including teaching techniques, discipline problems, infectious diseases, and issues with poorly constructed buildings. Teachers also...
Cover Image
Format:
Compound
In a panel discussion at the Museum of Western Colorado, Esther (Anderson) Campbell talks about her experience as a teacher in country and town schools in Moffat County. Randall Deewer, former principal of the Hawthorne School in Grand Junction, Emma Louise McCreanor and others also describe their experiences in country schools. This recording was provided by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Four radio programs written by Wilson Rockwell, based in part on short histories he wrote for his book Sunset Slope, and broadcast in the Grand Junction area on KREX in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The programs include: Episode 29 – The Death of Chief Ouray (0:00), Episode 30 – The Last Days of Chipeta (14:57), Episode 31 – Conquest of the Black Canyon (29:15), Episode 32 – The Ute Indian Legends (42:03). These broadcasts are made...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Al Look talks about the history of the Ute Indian tribe in Colorado, about their relations with the U.S. Government, conditions at the White River Agency, and about the events leading up to the Meeker Massacre. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Dudley Mitchell talks about the history of his family in Pitkin, Eagle, and Garfield Counties, and his acquaintance with Democratic politicians, including Ed Taylor. He also talks about his boyhood spent in Cardiff, Colorado, and about his career working on the railroad. 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....
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Gertrude Rader talks about the profession and lives of teachers, who were primarily women, in Western Colorado during the early Twentieth century. She discusses how, in small communities, women were expected to be much more than teachers including: Doctors’ assistants in a pinch, de facto members of the families that they boarded with in cases of illness or maternity, and moral pillars of the community. She includes many anecdotes from her own teaching...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Jean Urruty discusses his time in Mesa County, the history of Basque people in the Western United States, and Basque culture. He also talks about his life as a sheepherder, discrimination he and other Basque people faced, and his eventual success as a hotel owner on Grand Junction's Colorado Avenue. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Dudley Mitchell talks about the election campaigns of U.S. Representative Wayne Aspinall, and the campaign caravans they held in Western Colorado. Mitchell also discusses his work as the “ribbon candy expert” at the Miller Candy Factory in Grand Junction, the history of the Grand Valley’s Interurban line and the Grand Junction streetcar line, working at the Lyceum Theater on Main Street as a young man, and teenage escapades, such as causing...
Cover Image
Format:
Compound
In a three part interview with Mesa County Oral History Project folklorist Elain Thatcher, George Watts talks about his life and shares poetry, songs and stories. In part one, he talks about his childhood in Hayden, Colorado, the early death of his father, and growing up on a 200 acre farm. He shares several poems and stories, including some tall tales. He remembers the people of Hayden. In part two, he speaks about the importance of song during...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Shannon Robinson talks about attending grade school in Gunnison, Colorado, where she was largely shunned or bullied by white students as the first African-American student to attend her elementary school. She speaks about living in Aurora, Colorado, where she made friends with other Black children, but also experienced bullying from children of all ethnic backgrounds because of her mixed race. She discusses getting to know other members of her African...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Four radio plays written by Wilson Rockwell, based in part on short histories he wrote for his book Sunset Slope, and broadcast in the Grand Junction area on KREX during the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The programs include: Episode 13 – The Escape (0:00), Episode 14 – The Meeker Massacre (12:48), Episode 15 – The Ambush (28:34), Episode 16 – Professional Killer (42:46). These broadcasts are made available via signed release by the Mesa...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Jo (O’Quinn) Ferguson talks about making meals for ranch hands and other aspects of ranching with her husband George Gibson Ferguson in Garfield County. She speaks about churches, clubs, and the social and community life of the area. She describes her education in Louisiana and Colorado and her long teaching career, with an emphasis on her work with Central High School students at the end of her career. She talks about the history of the Roan Creek...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
In a tape-recorded lecture, Al Look talks about the tensions between White River Utes and US Government troops overseen by Nathan Meeker that led to the Meeker Massacre. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Cover Image
Format:
Compound
Former Grand Junction Fire Chief Frank Kreps describes living in a one-room log cabin on his parents’ Roan Creek homestead as a young boy in the 1910’s, the feeling of community among the scattered residents, and a sawmill that provided lumber to residents. He talks about his father’s career as a locomotive engineer for the Uintah Railway and the Denver & Rio Grande. He remembers having to split wood for all the sick families in Atchee during...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Dick Williams talks about the games he played with children as a boy in the downtown area of Grand Junction, including hide and go seek and kick the can. He remembers playing sandlot baseball and other games in a vacant lot on 9th Street between Grand and White Avenues. He recalls swimming in ditches and canals, and ice skating in what is now Lincoln Park. He speaks about competing in athletics in high school and college, and in Pioneer Clubs, which...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Professor Dan Roberts of Colorado Mesa University discusses the history and culture of the Ute Indians, Chief Ouray, and the removal of the Ute from Colorado by the U.S. Government during a lecture to a meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society....