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Levi Clark discusses the history and agriculture of Palisade, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado. *Photograph from the 1909 Palisade High School yearbook.
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William Lorenzen, the owner and editor of the Palisade Tribune newspaper from 1953 to 1979, talks about the history of the newspaper, beginning with the publishers that came before him. He speaks about the difference between linotype or “hot printing,” offset printing, and handset printing. He describes the newspaper’s relationship with the townspeople of Palisade over time, and the paper’s role in preserving and contributing to Palisade’s...
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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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Harold Kissell, R.P. Van Landingham, George Vonilla, Dale Hicks, and Marion Bowman talk about the history of mining in Palisade and Cameo, Colorado during a meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society in Palisade. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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Eugene Rowley discusses his grandfather and father who started and operated the Palisade Mine in 1905, and details his own involvement in the peach industry in Palisade, Colorado. He also talks about the town’s history and his boyhood there, with information about such things as a fatal rockslide that hit a train, Palisade’s schools, and his ownership of an early silent movie theater. His wife Margery Rowley chimes in with the occasional insight....
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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...
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Albert Phillips Jr. talks about the life of his father, a founder of the United Fruit Growers Association, and about his own career working for the cooperative. He discusses the history of the UFGA and other area fruit growers’ cooperatives, and about the history of fruit growing in Palisade, Colorado. He speaks about migrant workers and German prisoners of war used to harvest fruit during the Depression, and about changes in fruit production, packing...
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Marjorie Crow talks about her education in the Palisade School and Palisade High School in the 1920’s and 30’s. She speaks about what she did at home for recreation, and about her mother’s piano tutoring business. She describes Christmas programs, and band and chorus activities. She discusses her higher education at Grand Junction Junior College and the University of Colorado. She talks about her life teaching elementary grades in Delta, at...
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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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Ann Stokes talks about homesteading on East Orchard Mesa after her family moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1904. She remembers her father working on the “fancy” masonry for the Grand Junction train station. She recalls living in a one-room log cabin and sharing that cabin with a horse for an evening. She speaks about the development of irrigation on East Orchard Mesa and her father’s peach orchard. She describes walking with her siblings four...
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In a letter read aloud to his niece, Marion Echternach talks about the history of his immigrant family in the United States, including their settlement in Oklahoma in 1880. He speaks about his boyhood in Peckham, Oklahoma. He discusses the “land boom” in Palisade, Colorado at the beginning of the Twentieth century and his family’s role in settling the area. He remembers visiting his brother Bill, an employee at the Liberty Bell Mine near Telluride....
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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...
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During a panel discussion of the Mesa County Historical Society, Kenneth Baird discusses the settlement and incorporation of Grand Junction, the creation of the Grand Junction Town Company, early city government, town building, and early municipal ordinances. Professor Don Mackendrick talks about James W. Bucklin’s draft of a new city charter in 1910, which established a commission form of government. He mentions progressive reforms that put the...
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Elberta Francis and David Sundal hold a conversation about former Grand Junction resident and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. Francis speaks about knowing Trumbo through family connections and as a child of similar age. During his conversation with Francis and in a separate interview with Evelyn Kyle, Sundal talks about interviewing Trumbo and his impressions of him. Together, Francis and Sundal paint a picture of Trumbo and his...
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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,...
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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...
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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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Penelope Eberhart talks about her father Harry Brown’s introduction to oil shale while on a family vacation in Denver in the 1920’s, his subsequent move to the De Beque area on the Western Slope, and his early business venture in oil shale with the Index Oil Shale Company. She speaks about the mining and milling process for shale, and about a biproduct of the milling process marketed as plant fertilizer called Index Soil Vitalizer. She talks about...
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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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Dudley Mitchell talks about the route of the Colorado Midland Railway, about the stations, towns and landmarks on its path, about different railroad accidents, and about the workings of the railroad. 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.