Farm life
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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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Voice Recording
Carl Swanson talks about his early life and school days near Loma, Colorado, where his family settled and farmed. He recalls working for the Mesa County Road Department for 36 years, beginning in 1941, and becoming a foreman in 1953. He remembers road damage caused by mudslides on Douglas Pass that took two weeks to repair. He recalls the gilsonite mining boom and local coal mining. He speaks about clearing irrigation ditches and serving on the board...
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Voice Recording
John Brach, the son of Italian immigrants, talks about his family moving from Aguilar, Colorado to Loma so that they could work in agriculture instead of the coal mines. He speaks about relying on ditch water for drinking water, using carbide lights, and a coal stove. He remembers people who came to Loma as part of a Federal resettlement program during the Dust Bowl, including the De Kruger, Bittle and Beede families. He recalls other residents and...
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Voice Recording
Arthur Tufly talks about his school years in Appleton, Colorado, his life as a farmer, and the sugar beet industry. 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
Cecil Harper talks about his memories from early childhood in Loma, Colorado. He speaks about his father’s position as a surveyor on the Highline Canal, history of the dam’s construction, and about the celebration that was held upon the canal’s completion. He remembers the schools that he attended, including the Loma and Valley View Schools. He recalls his early jobs working for ranching outfits and working as a coal miner before he began life...
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Voice Recording
Lois Long describes the homestead she grew up on near Loma. She remembers living in a tent and then a pre-cut house, and drinking ditch water. She recalls her father and uncle moving the Valley View School to north of the Colorado River in the 1920’s, and the school bus that was sometimes a horse-drawn cart. Leland Buniger talks about his childhood in Grand Junction, Fruita and Loma. He describes farming potatoes, beans and hay. He speaks about...
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Voice Recording
James and Ida Jaenicke talk about moving to Loma, Colorado in 1937 as part of the US Farm Security Administration’s resettlement program for Dust Bowl refugees. They speak about aspects of farm life in Loma, such as relying on ditch water for drinking water. They remember running a dairy farm with 30 cows and 125 chickens. They recall people and stores in Fruita, where they shopped. James talks about his life in the congregation of the United Presbyterian...
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Voice Recording
Mary Plaisted talks about growing up in the Milldale area around the sugar beet factory in Grand Junction, Colorado, and about the brothels and red-light district nearby. She describes having to beg and take odd cleaning and sewing jobs to support she and her children, and the kind strangers that helped her. She mentions the many places she lived in Grand Junction, the floods common in the Riverside neighborhood, and living in a close-knit Italian...
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Voice Recording
Albert Rood describes the life and community involvements of his step-father William Weiser (nephew of William Moyer), his childhood in the Third Fruitridge area and the people who lived there, and stealing watermelons and floating them in the Grand Valley Canal. He also talks about his education at Mesa Junior College, and his work in the field for a Bureau of Entomology laboratory dedicated to eradicating a sugar beet pest. The interview was conducted...
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Voice Recording
Emma Nagel, whose family came to the Highpoint area north of Fruita in 1894, talks about agricultural life on her family’s homestead, about badgers, wolves, and wildlife they encountered, and about the Highpoint community’s Christmas celebrations. 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
Bruce Howard talks about leaving failed crops behind in Kansas during the Dust Bowl, and moving to Fruita, Colorado to farm. He also discusses establishing one of the first Black Angus herds in the Grand Valley, working as a peach orchard supervisor, working in Fruita’s large cucumber pickling operation, and wallpaper installation.
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Voice Recording
Lucille Mahannah, an early education and civic leader in Mesa County, describes her early life on the Hunter Ranch, a ranch established by her family in what later became the Hunter District. She also talks about her career in education as a teacher and as the Mesa County Superintendent of Schools. 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
Ruth Hoffman talks about her teen and young adult years spent packing fruit for Cross Orchards and other farms in Mesa County, Colorado. She describes the work involved in fruit packing, lighting smudge pots, picking fruit, the change in the kinds of jobs women did on the farm over time, and life on the farm. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of the Mesa County Public Library and the Museum of Western...
Format:
Voice Recording
Helen Johnson talks about gardening, methods of preserving food, and other aspects of rural life in Hotchkiss, Colorado in the early Twentieth century. She talks about her mother, Emily (Scatliff) Young, and the jobs she took to support the family after the loss of their life savings due to her father’s bad investment. She discusses the family’s religious observances and the history of churches in Hotchkiss. She talks about her abusive father-in-law...
