The Great Depression
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Frank Chiaro describes his life as the child of Italian immigrants, farm life in the Pomona area of Mesa County, Colorado, and his various jobs, including his work as a boilermaker for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. He also talks about the second incarnation of his railroading career as a clerk, about mail cars and mail clerks, about the Durham Stockyards and the many livestock trains departing Grand Junction, and about water towers for steam...
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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
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,...
Format:
Compound
Harry Sylvester Godby discusses his time spent working for and traveling with the Robinson Brothers Circus before moving to Grand Junction, Colorado. Harry also talks about his itinerant childhood moving from place to place, and the wide variety of jobs he worked throughout his life, including construction, mining, blacksmithing and potato farming, and how he was affected by the Great Depression. He shares his discovery of a large pile of boxes with...
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
Ray Bernal talks about his early life in the Grand Valley and the wide variety of jobs that he held, including work as a "gandy dancer" on the railroad, mining, farming, thinning beets, janitorial work, and herding sheep. He also discusses a group breakfast he had with President Harry S. Truman, where Truman's daughter staged a musical performance. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
Format:
Voice Recording
In an interview from May 14, 1981 (audio only, no transcript), Basil T. Knight talks about his youth in Michigan, meeting his wife’s family in Palisade, Colorado and ultimately moving there, operating a fruit farm, and becoming a lifelong teacher and school administrator. He explains the mechanisms that originally funded the many smaller school districts on the Western Slope, including taxes on railroads, and the reasons for the consolidation that...
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Article
Carl Ramunno recounts his life and discusses coaching wrestling for Steamboat Springs High School.
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Article
Art Adams describes his experiences working in agriculture and mining in Routt County.
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Voice Recording
Armand de Beque describes the early days of his father, W.A.E. De Beque, as one of the founders of De Beque, Colorado. He also talks about the cattle ranching business, local legends of the valley, oil rigs in the area, and sheep and cattle ranching wars. 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.
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.
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Article
Glenn Werner discusses life on a Yampa Valley ranch in the mid-twentieth century.
13) Albert Hitchens
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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.
14) Roger Butler
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Article
Roger Butler describes his experiences growing up in Routt County and the time he spent in the United States Army during World War II. He mentions how he went AWOL numerous times without getting caught. Upon returning to Routt County after the war, Roger held jobs with the US Forest Service and the Routt County Assessor's Office. Roger's wife, Lucille, (a frequent accomplice in his AWOL escapades) talks about her teaching career in one room schools...
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Voice Recording
In this interview with Bill McKelvie, Troy Keller and Kent Fletcher, Roger Butler describes his experiences growing up in Routt County and the time he spent in the United States Army during World War II. He mentions how he went AWOL numerous times without getting caught and his participation in the campaign in Italy during World War II. Roger also talks about some of his hunting and fishing experiences in Routt County.
Format:
Voice Recording
In this interview Albert Hitchens describes the 1884 origins of the Hitchens family ranch and life as part of 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:
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:
Compound
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
Earl Bedell is interviewed by Roger Muhme, Ken Bangs and Roger Bedell about growing up at Hahn's Peak during the early twentieth century.
Format:
Voice Recording
Carl Ramunno talks about his life before coaching wrestling in Steamboat Springs, and reminisces about his time as a coach and students that he remembers.
