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Bill Rump talks about his father Charlie Rump and his roll in developing the Redlands in Mesa County, Colorado as a member of the Redlands Company and the Redlands Water and Power Company. He recounts the efforts of those companies in creating orchards and other agricultural enterprises on the Redlands. He speaks about the Redlands School, roads, sports, youth activities, and other aspects of life on the Redlands and in Grand Junction. He remembers...
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Wayne Aspinall discusses a political career that spanned his election to the Mt. Lincoln School Board near Palisade, Colorado to his last election for the US House of Representatives in 1972. He speaks about campaigning in what was then the Fourth Congressional District in Western Colorado. He talks about his eight-year career as a teacher and school bus driver at the Mt. Lincoln School, taking students camping, dealing with ticks, and coaching girls...
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Eva Wood Leslie discusses her family’s farm life on Pinon Mesa, Colorado, sheep farming, chores done around the home, and school teaching in Mesa County. 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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In a two-part interview carried out over two days, Howard Shults talks about his experiences as a rancher and auctioneer on Colorado’s Western Slope. In part one, he talks about the arrival of his parents in Mesa County in 1903, their teaching careers at Pear Park and in Fruita, and his father’s move to a career as an auctioneer. He speaks about his childhood in Grand Junction and Collbran, his graduation from Grand Junction High School in 1923,...
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Dorothy Tindall talks about the early days of Whitewater, Colorado as a rail center for cattle and stock. She speaks about the administrative organization of schools prior to the consolidation of Mesa County School District 51, her development of Mesa County’s first school hot lunch program at the Star School, games kids played at recess, about her work educating the children of migrant laborers who lived in La Colonia, and her role in the development...
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Early Grand Junction resident Ruth Larson describes her life as a teacher and principal in Mesa County schools. 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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In this recording, Alta Nolan reads the memoirs of Cordelia Files. Files talks about the history of her parents and maternal grandparents who homesteaded in the Fruita, Colorado area in the 1890’s. She describes the fruit growing operation on the homestead. She recounts seeing the Ute people and Chipeta when they came in the fall to dry fruit from the orchard. She remembers early Fruita, with its dirt streets and plank sidewalks. She speaks about...
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Vern Wood discusses his life as an early Mesa County resident, homesteader in Pinon Mesa, and cattle rancher on Glade Park. Wood and his wife Bernice also discuss the building of the Serpent’s Trail on the Colorado National Monument, life at local schools, country dances on Glade Park, transportation methods, and murder scandals that occurred around Glade Park. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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Frank Simonetti Sr. talks about his arrival in the United States from southern Italy in 1914 and his eventual arrival in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1918, where he began a long career with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. He remembers a fire that burnt down the D&RG icehouse, the railroad shop strike in 1922, and working a seven-day work week for thirty years. He recalls different kinds of locomotives. Angela Simonetti recalls growing up in the...
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Rufus Hirons talks about his education in Grand Junction schools, and about teachers and school district employees (including his father, Walter Hirons). He also touches on the Fruita to Grand Junction Interurban line, sheep ranching with his grandfather, and local Italian Americans. 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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Gertrude Rader discusses her time spent teaching in Loma, Colorado in the early 1900s. She talks about the role of the sugar beet company as landowner and employer in the area. She includes details about the schools, businesses, and churches that existed in Loma, her involvement starting Mesa County’s first hot school lunch program, and her experiences attending an annual fish fry in Horsethief Canyon. Gertrude also shares memories about the many...
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Helen Johnson talks about helping teach a WPA-funded dance class during the Great Depression. She speaks about other government programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, and how they helped the people of Mesa County, Colorado during the Great Depression. She describes working for Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles to manufacture airplanes during World War II, where she became the lead in her section. She talks about her brief career teaching...
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Ruth Tilton talks about her involvement in Tri-M, the Girl Scouts, a bridge club, and other clubs and societies upon moving to Palisade, Colorado. She speaks about skiing on the Grand Mesa with her husband Forrest Tilton in the 1930’s, and about skiing near Leadville. She discusses the history of the Palisade Public Library from its humble beginnings inside of a downtown store, and her involvement in recording and preserving Palisade’s local history....
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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...
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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 Early Day Schools...
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Ina Dyer discusses life as a schoolteacher in Mesa, Collbran, Fruitvale, and Grand Junction, Colorado, including methods of punishing students, teacher’s pay, and her relationships with fellow teachers in the area. 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. *Photograph from 1943 Grand Junction High School...