Frontier and pioneer life -- Colorado
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Voice Recording
Sisters Anna McGinley and Mae (McGinley) Plunkett discuss the pioneering history of their families in Fruita during the late Nineteenth century and early Twentieth century. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Dorothy Beard discusses the Fruita Drug Store, and homesteading on land that became the Colorado National Monument and McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
*Photograph from the 1932 University of Colorado yearbook
Format:
Voice Recording
George Knowles talks about the history of his father’s carpentry and construction business in Fruita, about fighting as a soldier in World War I, and aspects of early Mesa County life. Esther Knowles discusses her family and early Twentieth century life in Plateau Valley. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Lucille Mahannah, an early education and civic leader in Mesa County, describes her early life on the Hunter Ranch, a ranch established by her family in what later became the Hunter District. She also talks about her career in education as a teacher and as the Mesa County Superintendent of Schools. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Note:...
Format:
Voice Recording
Emma Nagel discusses her family’s dairy business in rural Mesa County, Colorado, the butter making process, storing and selling butter, and changes brought to the home-butter business after the establishment of a local creamery. She also talks about participating in Mesa County Fairs, family activities, homemaking with her mother, an icehouse her father constructed, home luncheon visits, Fruita events, people and history, and her father’s job...
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. The plays’ authors used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. In this recording the listener will hear the play Charlie Glass:...
Format:
Compound
Cordelia Files talks about the history of her family as early homesteaders in Mesa County, Colorado. She remembers life in Fruita in the early Twentieth century. She recalls working on a ranch near De Beque for her first job at the age of fifteen. She speaks about her life as a teacher instructing all eight grades in a one-room school house, about different episodes from her career in education (including the time a cat came to school), and about...
Format:
Voice Recording
Don and Mary Roth discuss ranching on the Colorado National Monument and surrounding area, John Otto, and interactions with Ute Indians. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Sisters Dorothy (Raber) Beard and Marjorie (Raber) Likes talk about the history of their family in Fruita, Colorado. They speak about Will Minor, the goat herder and self-educated photographer, author, and amateur lepidopterist who discovered the butterfly Papilio Indra Minori on the Colorado National Monument. They discuss homesteads that the Beard family owned in the canyons that comprise the current day McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area....
Format:
Compound
William “Mose” Burkitt and Estella (Gavin) Taylor discuss the early history of Fruita, Colorado and Mesa County. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Helen and Clarence Swanson discuss the history of their families in early Fruita, and Fruita buildings and organizations. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Jeanette LeBeau, an early Mesa County resident, talks about climbing Independence Monument with bare feet, Ute Indians who visited her grandparents in pioneer Fruita, summers spent at Leach’s cattle ranch in Pinon Mesa, means of transportation, law enforcement, and prejudice against Catholics in the Grand Valley. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western...
Format:
Compound
Joe, Mike and Ida Peep discuss their family’s Italian heritage, the history of their pioneer family in Fruita, and life as young people in Western Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Lois Saunders talks about early life in Fruita, Loma, and Mack, Colorado, about life on a farm with her husband Roe Saunders, and about Colorado Mesa University’s Saunders Field House, which was named for her husband. 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.
Format:
Compound
Margaret Snook describes the voyage to the United States from her native Scotland in 1910, and life in the Van Houten mining camp near Raton, Colorado. She and her daughter Ida May (Snook) Waggoner talk about William T. and Clara P. Snook, and their establishment of a homestead in what became known as Snooks Bottom. Margaret Snook discusses life in Craig and Axel, Colorado, where she and her husband Guy Snook worked supplying homesteaders with various...
Format:
Compound
Mary Corcoran talks about her parents and grandparents, pioneers in Mesa County and Eastern Utah. She also talks about her early life in Grand Junction, Colorado, and about ranch life above De Beque on the Grand Mesa. 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.
Format:
Compound
Rose and Morgan Goss discuss the early settlement of Grand Junction and Fruita, Colorado, and agricultural life in the Appleton area. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Ruby Luton discusses the history of Atchee, the Uintah Railway, and the early history of Fruita. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Longtime Fruita residents and photographers Will Minor and Lee Warner discuss their experiences in the Colorado National Monument and the surrounding areas of Western Colorado and Eastern Utah. They also talk about meeting John Otto, and about Minor’s discovery of the rare Papilio Indra Minori butterfly on the Monument. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of...
Format:
Compound
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...
