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.


Showing 1 - 11 of 11 , query time: 0.01s
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
James Franklin discusses his life as a cowboy in Mesa County, Garfield County, and elsewhere on Colorado’s Western Slope. Franklin touches on cooking over the campfire, means of travel, cures for ailments, training horses, the first rodeo in which he participated, a large flood that destroyed his mother’s farm, and dealing with inclement weather on the range. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Jim Franklin discusses the pioneer lives of his parents, who came to the Roan Creek, Colorado area from Arkansas in 1887. He also talks about his days as a cowboy, mountain lions, and the history of De Beque. 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
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
Six 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 in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The programs include: Episode 17 – The Double Cross (0:00), Episode 18 – The Black Mesa Gunfight (13:49), Episode 19 – The Monument Creek Killings (27:49), Episode 20 – The White River Canyon Indian Fight (40:49), Episode 21 – The Beaver Creek...
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:
Voice Recording
In a general meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society, Armand de Beque describes the history of oil shale development in De Beque and the Piceance Basin, Colorado. He offers three stories for how it was discovered that oil shale can burn. He describes the founding of the Shale Oil Syndicate, an organization founded by his father, Dr. W.A.E. de Beque, William R. Warren, George Newton, and William Dinkel. He explains the lengthy process the Shale...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Vesta Fitzpatrick talks about her mother’s skill as a seemstress and how she made the family’s clothes. She remembers family life and entertainment during her youth, her parents reciting poems, and her father’s storytelling abilities. She recalls taking care of the family from a young age after her mother became ill. She speaks about seeing Buffalo Bill’s wild West show in Lincoln Park and going to chautauquas in Collbran. She remembers the...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Vesta Fitzpatrick talks about growing up in Buena Vista, New Castle, and De Beque, Colorado. She remembers the family’s homestead and life in De Beque, and her role as a homemaker from an early age due to her mother’s illness. She speaks about country school life. She details the dances that took place, including costume, masquerade, and “hard time” dances. She recalls living in Uravan during World War II, where her grandchildren played in...
Cover Image
Format:
Voice Recording
Amateur paleontologist Al Look speaks about dinosaur fossil discoveries in Delta County and on the Western Slope in a lecture for the Surface Creek Historical Society in Cedaredge, 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
Hugh Jones talks about his growing up in Bucklin, Kansas and settling in the Roan Creek area of Colorado’s Western Slope during the Dust Bowl. He speaks about working as a ranch hand and then as a welder in a shipyard during World War II. He recalls working with the Colorado Division of Wildlife at the Little Hills Experiment Station in Meeker and his subsequent twenty-five year career with the agency. He describes two tame deer named Zeke and June,...