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The celebration of Grand Junction’s 100th anniversary. Activities began in September of 1981, corresponding with the 100-year anniversary of the settlement of the first white people in Grand Junction after the forced expulsion and resettlement of the Ute Indians from the area. Activities continued into 1982. Such activities included the recording of several radio plays about area history for the Grand Junction Centennial Celebration Radio 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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Harold Bryant was born in Pickrell, Nebraska to John Edward Bryant and Anna (Soule) Bryant. US Census records indicate that the family moved to the Appleton area of Mesa County, Colorado sometime between 1900 and 1910. There, they homesteaded. Harold Bryant, as the only boy of several children, did much of the farm's labor. His father was a Dunkard (Church of the Brethren) and, according to Al Look, “a tough old religionist.” Harold rejected the...
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David Sundal discusses in great detail the life of famous author Dalton Trumbo of Grand Junction, Colorado, based in large part on Sundal’s conversations with the author. Sundal describes the local community’s relationships with Trumbo, reactions to Trumbo’s book Eclipse, portrayals of prominent businessman William Moyer and Daily Sentinel editor Walter Walker in the book, and Trumbo’s life and career after leaving Mesa County. He talks about...
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A local chapter of the international organization created by attorney Silmon Smith, M.N. Due, Bob Ross, and man named Jones in 1921. According to Lion Laird Smith, the club briefly disbanded when Walter Walker brought the Rotary Club to town. In 1922, the Grand Junction Lions Club reformed with Silmon Smith as president (Laird's father). According to Silmon Smith, because he and others had not been offered membership in the Rotary Club, he and other...
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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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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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A branch of a revised version of the organization that began in 1915 and grew stronger in the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan inflamed prevailing prejudices against Catholics, Jews, Blacks and immigrants, and promised a return to "Old Time Religion" and Americanism. As Colorado was a primarily Protestant state, the Klan's influence was particularly strong here during the 1920's. The Klan had several members in positions of power, including the governor,...
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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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He was born in Spearfish, South Dakota to William F. Hartman and Madora Mae (Ricks) Hartman. The 1910 US Census shows that his father worked as a clerk in a grocery store. His mother was a homemaker. The family moved to Bayard, Nebraska around 1915, when William Jr. was five years old. His mother died there in 1916, and the 1920 Census shows that William Sr. was a widower working as a laborer in a sugar factory. The 1930 Census shows William Jr....
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He was the publisher of The Daily Sentinel and a leading Democrat in Grand Junction, Colorado. He became the state Democratic Party chairman in the 1920's. He was behind the deal of William Moyer to build a community swimming pool in Lincoln Park, and the deal that brought in the Fruit Grower’s Association. He also backed the Goodwill and Salvation Army charities. He was an organizer of the campaign to build the Avalon Theater and brought acts...
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Bill Wallace talks about his family's pioneer ranching history in Cisco, Utah, about taking cattle by train to Kansas City, and about different ranches and people of Grand County, Utah. He also discusses petrified turtles that were discovered in the building of I-70, and Native American artifacts and sites such as the Owl Rock near the old Turner Ranch. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County...
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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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Editor of the Solid Muldoon newspaper in early day Ouray, Colorado. According to the website of the Durango Herald, Day was brought from Ouray to Durango in 1892 in order to establish the Durango Democrat, a rival newspaper to the Republican-held Durango Herald. Both the Herald website and interviews with Al Look, a one-time employee of Day, recount a longstanding rivalry between Day and other local publishers. In one such rivalry, between Day and...
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According to livestock auctioneer Howard Shults, Rettig ran the Modern Market on Main Street, and his Rettig Packing Company owned a slaughterhouse south of town in the early to mid-Twentieth century. While his business ventures were never very successful in Grand Junction, he later became involved in a lucrative deal with Mr. King, owner of King Soopers stores in Denver. He also began the Save-A-Nickel grocery store, presumably in Denver. According...
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He was born to Francis Adrian Goulet and Anne Elizabeth (Sheahan) Goulet in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The 1910 US Census record shows that his father was a cutter in a shoe shop, and that his mother was a presser in a shoe shop. His father’s background was French Canadian. His mother was the daughter of Irish immigrants. Massachusetts death records show that John’s mother died in 1928, when he was seventeen or eighteen years old. The 1930...
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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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Wayne Aspinall describes his boyhood in Palisade, Colorado, his education at Mt. Lincoln School and the University of Denver, and his career as a schoolteacher, fruit farmer, lawyer, and U.S. Congressman. 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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Dr. Everett Munro of Grand Junction discusses his time as a cowboy, U.S. Deputy Stock detective, and medical assistant on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of the Mesa County Public Library and the Museum of Western Colorado.
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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...