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Oscar Jaynes discusses the formation of the Clifton Lions Club, the Lions’ role in creating the Clifton Fire Department, and other aspects of Clifton, Colorado history. He also talks extensively about the early history of the fire department. 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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Mabelle Clymer discusses life in Clifton, Colorado in the early Twentieth century, and the history of her family there. 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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Edith Strain talks about her childhood in Iowa and about coming to Clifton, Colorado with her family to farm in 1909. She recounts Clifton’s agricultural past and the history of its town center, especially in regard to schools, churches, and businesses. She speaks about her husband Robert Strain and his work as a farmer, mechanic, and service station owner. She remembers owning a restaurant next door to his service station in Clifton. She talks...
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She was born in Nebraska and married Henry Jens, a German immigrant. US Census records show her living in the Clifton area of Mesa County, Colorado by 1910. Together they settled on land at what is now the intersection of E and 32 Roads in Clifton, on what they called the Locust Ranch. They grew fruit. She was related to Mesa County Oral History Project interviewee Thelma (Kettle) Moore.
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Myrtle Hetzel talks about her early life in rural Kansas living on a farm, about working as a waitress in Oberlin, Kansas, and about her life with Ross Hetzel in Clifton, Colorado, where she attended church, quilted, and kept house. 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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Edithe Pryor discusses her upbringing on a farm in Palisade, Colorado in the early Twentieth century as the daughter of a Welsh immigrant father, and the agricultural history of Palisade, Clifton and the east end of the Grand Valley. She also talks about irrigating land, her mother’s homemaking and recipes for apple deserts, using an old wood-fired cook stove, and getting drinking water from an irrigation ditch. The interview was conducted by the...
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Lyn Lampert lectures about the Little Book Cliff Railway before a meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society (MCHS). In addition, the MCHS votes affirmatively on two resolutions to aid in the preservation of important local history sites. In the first, the MCHS votes to aid in the preservation of the Handy Chapel in Grand Junction, Colorado (the only surviving church building from the 1880s and the longtime home of the African Methodist Church)....
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Madge Davis talks about her early life in Clifton, Colorado, including childhood games she played, Fourth of July picnics in No Thoroughfare Canyon, and holiday celebrations. She also discusses other aspects of life living on a ranch, including home furnishings, homemade clothes, handcrafts, her father cutting ice from the Colorado River, and schooling. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County...
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Priscella Broderson describes life as a homemaker on an apple farm in Clifton, Colorado in the early Twentieth century. She discusses apple processing and packing, cooking on a coal stove, getting water from the Highline Canal and washing clothes. She also talks about her early life in Grand Junction, including her schooling, working at the Fair Store, and Christmas celebrations. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project,...
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Glenn McFall talks about his various jobs around Mesa County and about witnessing the unveiling of Christo’s Valley Curtain installation in Rifle Gap. He also discusses fishing and battling snow storms on the Grand Mesa, the deer population around Mesa County, his experiences during childhood growing up in Clifton, the old Midland Trail automobile route, drinking and making bootleg whiskey, Italian-Americans making bootleg wine, the Book Cliff Railway,...
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During episodes of the radio show Pioneer Reviews, which aired on KFXJ in the 1960’s (now KREX), Mesa County farm agent and host Dick Woodfin speaks with several Western Slope residents about pioneer history. Interviewees include Ed Finley of De Beque, Walter Rhodes of Doyleville, Gerald V. Gimple of Clifton, Ellen (White) Kirby of Fruita, Clyde Buffington of Gunnison, and Catherine Moore of Glade Park. These broadcasts are made available via signed...
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Thomas Campbell of Clifton talks about the roads, towns, farms, ranches and geography of places throughout Mesa County, Colorado. He speaks about the Molina flour mill in the town of Molina and about the history of local agriculture. He talks about the history of Clifton, its settlement, and churches. He describes early agriculture and methods of clearing the land for crops. He remembers aspects of peach, pear and apple growing, including pests and...
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Thelma Moore talks about her youth on a fruit farm in Pear Park, life in early Grand Junction, her involvement in 4-H clubs, the Locust Ranch fruit growing operation in Clifton, and the other members of the Kettle family to settle in that area. She discusses her career as a seamstress and work making drapes, county extension work with quilters, craft competitions at the Mesa County Fair, and chautauquas and variety shows. She also goes into her life...
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Edith Patton talks about her life in Clifton, Colorado, including her job as a “traveling secretary” for School District 51, working in her mother’s restaurant, baking pies, making and delivering food to farm laborers, and packing fruit. She also discusses her father’s role as one of the original members of the Mesa County Planning Department, and his Mobile gas station on F Road. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History...
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Charlotte (Jackson) Claar describes growing up on a homestead in Cheyenne County, Colorado, where the family witched for water, built an adobe house, and held jack rabbit drives. She speaks about moving to Grand Valley, Colorado (now Parachute) in 1920. She talks about her 37-year career as a teacher and then principal in Grand Valley, at the Clifton School, and at the Fruitvale School. She discusses her father and husband’s careers on the railroad....
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Harold Zimmerman describes packing fruit during harvest time in the Clifton area, spraying for codling moths, the end of early apple farming in the valley, the train of wagons used to haul fruit on the Midland Trail at harvest time and about a flash flood that devastated Cross Orchards and destroyed 31 Road. He also talks about his career in bookkeeping for Mesa County Valley School District 51 and other organizations, the run on local banks during...
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Oscar Jaynes discusses childhood memories of Clifton, Colorado, including life on his family’s homestead, a time he climbed inside a giant tire and rolled down a desert hill, and a boxing match at school with future Colorado Supreme Court justice Jim Groves. He then relates tales of traveling the country on freight cars trying to find work during the Great Depression. Oscar also talks a great deal about the fruit business, specifically the peach...
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Dick Lloyd talks about cattle ranching in Western Colorado both before and after the Taylor Grazing Act, about moving cattle around to different grazing areas in Colorado, and about shipping them to Denver by rail via the De Beque Stockyard. He speaks about training horses and using horses to herd cattle. Bertha Lloyd discusses her courtship with Dick, their chivaree and their marriage. The two of them describe homesteading in a log cabin on the Grand...
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In one interview captured in five recordings, Kenneth Thompson talks about his life in Mesa County, Colorado. In part one, he remembers moving to Clifton, Colorado, where the family farmed fruit. He recalls homesteading on Glade Park in a log cabin built by his fifteen-year-old brother. He discusses his time as a sheepherder and sheepherding practices, especially those for protecting sheep from various predators. He speaks about trapping predators...
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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 Living History in...