Mesa County (Colo.) -- History
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Voice Recording
William Hartman talks about his early life in South Dakota and Nebraska, and about his higher education. He speaks about his career in journalism, working at the Sterling Advocate in Sterling, Colorado, and about teaching journalism at Mesa College. He remembers working with students on the Criterion, the student newspaper. He recalls the staff and faculty members of early Mesa College, and the college’s first building, which was located downtown....
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Voice Recording
Nancy (Renwick) Saxton and her daughter, Nancy Margaret "Peggy" Saxton, discuss Nancy's career as a female letter carrier in the Grand Valley, and the farming history of their family in both Appleton and the Hunter District. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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Voice Recording
Eben Massey talks about growing up on a ranch in Gateway, Colorado. He remembers riding horseback and playing with his cousins. He recalls encounters with rattlesnakes, bull snakes, pack rats, rabbits, and deer. He tells stories of deer hunts he was involved with. He remembers being a “flanker” who helped to brand cattle, working as a cowboy and ranch hand as a boy, riding horses, and calf roping. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County...
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Voice Recording
Fred Bowman and Helen (Bowman) Lane discuss their father’s opening of the first slaughterhouse in Grand Junction, the history of downtown buildings, and the lives of young people in early Twentieth century 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.
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Voice Recording
John and Olive Groves discuss the political history of Mesa County, and the formation of the Grand Valley Drainage District. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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Voice Recording
Jean Page talks about the engineering career of her father, John Page, including his role as the office engineer on the Hoover Dam project, his design of several other dams in the West, and his appointment as the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation in 1937. She also discusses his life as an engineer and fruit farmer in Mesa County, his civic involvement in the area, and her childhood there. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral...
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Compound
Former state and federal game warden John Duncan Hart talks about wildlife management in the Grand River Game Bird Refuge and with the Department of Fish and Game, and discusses the populations and habits of certain bird and animal species. He recounts a run-in with John Otto over orders to cull the bison and elk herds Otto had introduced to the Colorado National Monument. He talks about the painter Harold Bryant, his hunting and habits. He also discusses...
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Voice Recording
Lee (who remains anonymous) talks about leaving his abusive grandmother at 14, being on the lam with his father, a criminal, and then running away after being adopted by a nice Mormon family. He describes his years of alcoholism, petty crime and jail time, both in and out of the armed forces. He then describes the people and organizations that helped him get clean and sober, including Alcoholics Anonymous of Grand Junction and the Ft. Logan Mental...
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Voice Recording
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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Voice Recording
Wayne Farley, a geophysicist who was involved in the Western Slope’s uranium boom, talks about methods of prospecting for uranium, including the use of airplanes and helicopters, and describes the characteristics of rocks that contains the element. 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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Voice Recording
Helen Wilson talks about the life of her father, Robert “Bob” Ross, co-founder of the Ross Business College, important educator in Fruitvale, Colorado, and an early settler of that 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 1936 Grand Junction High School yearbook.
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Voice Recording
James Earl Shaw talks about his father James S. Shaw and his days running the S Cross Ranch on Pinon Mesa, Colorado, mining vanadium on Polar Mesa, Utah, and operating an early automobile dealership on Main Street in Grand Junction, Colorado. 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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Voice Recording
Local historian David Sundal talks about the history of Grand Junction, Colorado’s First Church of the Nazarene and about his father Olaf Sundal, a clergyman who presided over the church for many years, beginning in 1930. He talks about the role of local churches in providing food relief to local people and to Dust Bowl migrants during the Great Depression. He also speaks about the row of churches on White Avenue and about the history of churches...
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Voice Recording
Ruth Smith and Isabella Cunningham, former reporters for The Daily Sentinel, recall their careers at the newspaper during the 1920’s through 1940’s. Cunningham talks about covering railroad news and events, including the institution of a sixteen-hour-day law for workers. They remember two young children that were killed when playing with dynamite in Fruitvale. They describe the annual Christmas party for needy children that was put on each year...
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Voice Recording
Dwain Jackson talks about his family history and their arrival in Delta County in the 1880’s. He remembers taking the Grand Junction streetcar line and automobile rides in the 1920’s and 30’s. He speaks about living north of Cedaredge as a child and time spent fishing on the Grand Mesa. He talks about the reluctance of Delta County residents to adhere to new fish and game management laws in the early 1900’s, and tells the story of William...
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Voice Recording
Bob Collins talks about his introduction to radio broadcasting in the armed forces during World War II, attending radio broadcasting school back home in Ohio, and coming to Grand Junction, Colorado to manage the new KEXO station in 1948. He talks about his life in broadcasting at KEXO, KREX and KSTAR. He speaks about his work with the Grand Junction Centennial committee to plan events around the celebration of the town’s centennial anniversary in...
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Voice Recording
Harold Stafford talks about coming to Western Colorado during the Great Depression to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). He describes working on the construction of Rim Rock Drive as part of the Colorado National Monument CCC camp. He discusses the Rim Rock Drive road-building disaster, in which nine men were killed by a mistimed blast. He speaks about Rod Day, the education coordinator in the camp, and a former newspaper man who had murdered...
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Voice Recording
John Collier talks about his upbringing on a farm in Grand Junction, Colorado, on ranchland and farmland in the Redlands, and on a homestead in Pinon Mesa. He speaks about the history of the Sleeper and Ela family’s ranching operations on Pinon Mesa. He describes his Uncle Joe Collier, who served as the Mesa County Sheriff during Prohibition, and a bootlegger’s attempt to blackmail him. He discusses what he perceives as the effect of uranium prospecting...
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Voice Recording
Laird Smith talks about his grandfather Frank Smith’s severe case of Tuberculosis that caused the doctor to move with his family to Grand Junction, Colorado. He describes the apartment next to a saloon where the family lived on Main Street, where drunken men would sometimes crawl in through the windows by mistake. He discusses his father Silmon Smith’s “spartan” upbringing, his camping alone on the Grand Mesa for long stretches when he was...
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Voice Recording
John Hart talks about his friend and brother-in-law, the Mesa County artist Harold Bryant. He discusses Bryant's personality, his horseback riding, hunting and marksmanship, and his method of artistic composition. He also mentions Bucky, a deer that was supposedly neutered and tamed by the Utes, and became a companion of Bryant, among others. Josephine Biggs talks about meeting Bryant at gatherings of the Beaux Arts Club in Grand Junction in the 1920's,...
