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Showing 1 - 14 of 14 , query time: 0.03s
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Early Fruitvale resident Velma E. Budin discusses the history of Fruitvale and Fruitvale High School, the extensive pioneering history of the Borschell family in the Grand Valley, the biographies of several prominent Fruitvale families, fruit farming, and early irrigation methods of 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 Colorado. *Photograph...
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Ina Dyer discusses life as a schoolteacher in Mesa, Collbran, Fruitvale, and Grand Junction, Colorado, including methods of punishing students, teacher’s pay, and her relationships with fellow teachers in the 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 1943 Grand Junction High School...
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Levi Morse discusses the history of Mesa County, Colorado, including fruit growing, drinking water from the Gunnison River and its link to typhoid fever, the YMCA, and the creamery business. He also talks extensively about social events such as the Mesa County Fair, and gives a firsthand account of the first motion picture showing in Grand Junction. June Morse talks about teaching at Fruitvale High School, community organizations and social gatherings....
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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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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...
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Helen Johnson talks about helping teach a WPA-funded dance class during the Great Depression. She speaks about other government programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, and how they helped the people of Mesa County, Colorado during the Great Depression. She describes working for Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles to manufacture airplanes during World War II, where she became the lead in her section. She talks about her brief career teaching...
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Dr. Addie (Russell) Maynard tells stories of her life as an osteopathic doctor in Mesa County, Colorado, including a time when she helped a woman give birth on a train with barely any supplies. She also touches on the social life in Grand Junction when she was a child, changes throughout the years in the practice of medicine, and the various medical resources available to early Mesa County residents. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County...
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Al look talks about the many books he authored, the many speeches he gave, and his techniques for public speaking. He speaks about his endeavors in paleontology, the many places he visited during his travels, and his written contributions to local history. 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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Dick Williams talks about the games he played with children as a boy in the downtown area of Grand Junction, including hide and go seek and kick the can. He remembers playing sandlot baseball and other games in a vacant lot on 9th Street between Grand and White Avenues. He recalls swimming in ditches and canals, and ice skating in what is now Lincoln Park. He speaks about competing in athletics in high school and college, and in Pioneer Clubs, which...
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Craig Aupperle talks about the early history of schools and education in Grand Junction and Mesa County. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Public Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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Loyd Files talks about his early life in Kansas, moving to Colorado with his family via covered wagon in 1914, and the process of filing for a homestead. He remembers homesteading with his parents in Lamar, Colorado, and with his brother in Glade Park in 1920. He recalls working on the crew that built the Serpents Trail over the Colorado National Monument, meeting John Otto, and helping build Rimrock Drive over the Monument. He speaks about his marriage...
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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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Glenn McFall discusses downtown businesses and business owners in Grand Junction, Colorado, as well as the shoe store he worked at for nine years, McConnell-Lowes. Glenn also talks about the involvement of the Ku Klux Klan in the Grand Valley area, the Mesa County Pest House and Smallpox outbreaks, the social scene and where people went to go dancing, the Mesa County Fair, horse racing and gambling, bailing rowdy cowboys out of the local jail, Eddie...
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Ann Stokes talks about her father-in-law Walter Stokes and his involvement in Nineteenth century labor strife as a union coal miner in Colorado. She describes his establishment of the Stokes Mine after he moved to Mesa County and describes the mine’s operations. She speaks about early phone service in Palisade. She discusses her mom’s job as a nurse in rural areas, which included tasks like housecleaning, cooking, and sewing baby clothes for new...