The Great Depression
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Early Mesa County resident Virgil Hickman discusses farm life in Palisade and East Orchard Mesa, including irrigation ditches and dams, water rights of farmers and ranchers, hunting deer during the Great Depression, the methods used in keeping peach orchards bug-free, weekly band concerts, making apple butter, and the Palisade Peach Festival. He also talks about building Skyway Road on the Grand Mesa with picks, blasting powder and horses. This recording...
Format:
Voice Recording
Daily Sentinel writer William “Bill” Nelson talks about the history of the Grand Valley irrigation system during the early days of Mesa County. Nelson describes how water projects were developed, how water is doled out to people in the area, and specific water rights. He also discusses his family life, community activism, his father’s failing businesses during the Great Depression, and experiencing surgery on his retina. The interview was conducted...
Format:
Voice Recording
In an interview recorded November 8, 1977, Fred Ames and his wife Emma Lillian (Stocks) Ames discuss the history of Sinbad Valley and its settlement by his family and others.
In second and third interviews recorded on November 15 and December 3, 1977 (transcript only*), Fred Ames talks about the McCarty Gang, their stomping grounds in Sinbad Valley and nearby Eastern Utah, and about meeting Tom McCarty as a child. He discusses homesteading and...
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Article
Albert Hitchens and three of his adult children describe the 1884 origins of the Hitchens family ranch and life as a ranching family. The Hitchens are the longest continuous ranching family in Routt County. The family operated the post office in Pool, Colorado and later in Milner, Colorado.
Format:
Compound
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...
Format:
Article
Wayne Whitecotton describes growing up on a Routt County ranch in the early 20th century. After leaving school at age 13, Wayne made a living as a rancher and coal miner supplementing his food supply by hunting and trapping. He served with General Patton in World War II.
Other contributors to this article include Shane Jacobs and Russell Snowden.
Format:
Voice Recording
Joseph John Egger discusses his family’s history in Mesa County, and Mesa County agriculture in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. 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
Glenn Werner is interviewed by Scot Anderson and Danny Horne about his life on a Routt County ranch.
Format:
Article
Art Adams describes his experiences working in agriculture and mining in Routt County.
Format:
Voice Recording
Winston Spangler is Interviewed by Roger Muhme, Larry Ball, and Roger Bidell about his life living on different ranches in Colorado and elsewhere.
Format:
Article
Winston Spangler talks about the farms he has worked on since he was a child and how he and others in Routt County started The Elk River Grazing Association. Added at the end of the article is an exerp from John James Audubon: American Woodsman.
Format:
Article
John Fetcher describes his early life and education and his involvement in munitions manufacturing during World War II. After the war John and his family purchased a ranch in Routt County, and John went on to make numerous contributions to the Yampa Valley including establishing the Steamboat Springs ski resort.
Format:
Voice Recording
Art Adams is interviewed by his grandson, J.D. Adams about growing up and working in Routt County. Art's wife, Veronica, briefly participates in the interview as well.
Format:
Voice Recording
In this interview with Bill McKelvie, Errold Hitchens talks about his experiences growing up on the Hitchens ranch, and memories of his father. Errold explains the economics of the cattle ranching business and expresses his worries about the U.S. economy in 1985.
Format:
Compound
Darwin Burford discusses growing up in Whitewater, Colorado in the early Twentieth century, and going to school in Mesa County, Colorado. Darwin talks about the early narrow gauge railroad that serviced Mesa County, about the Barnum and Bailey Circus, daily childhood chores, playing cribbage as a family, and his argument with John Otto. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries,...
Format:
Voice Recording
In this interview with Tommy Sharp and Bill McKelvie, John Fetcher describes his early life and education and his involvement in munitions manufacturing during World War II. After the war John and his family purchased a ranch in Routt County and learned about the reality of the cattle business.
Format:
Compound
Dorothy Tindall talks about the early days of Whitewater, Colorado as a rail center for cattle and stock. She speaks about the administrative organization of schools prior to the consolidation of Mesa County School District 51, her development of Mesa County’s first school hot lunch program at the Star School, games kids played at recess, about her work educating the children of migrant laborers who lived in La Colonia, and her role in the development...
