Mesa County (Colo.) -- History
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J.W. Latham describes his career of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad near Grand Junction, Colorado, including the run from Grand Junction to Minturn, his work as fireman, and different steam engines used. He also talks about the pack of grey wolves that lived in the Bookcliffs near De Beque in the early 1920’s, and touches on the sheep and cattlemen wars. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa...
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Compound
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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Voice Recording
To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play On the Road to Grand...
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...
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Compound
Former Grand Junction Fire Chief Frank Kreps describes living in a one-room log cabin on his parents’ Roan Creek homestead as a young boy in the 1910’s, the feeling of community among the scattered residents, and a sawmill that provided lumber to residents. He talks about his father’s career as a locomotive engineer for the Uintah Railway and the Denver & Rio Grande. He remembers having to split wood for all the sick families in Atchee during...
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Compound
Julia Harris discusses her family’s pioneer history and its move westward, including the journey of her grandfather, who was a member of the 1st Colorado Cavalry Regiment before homesteading in Western Colorado. She talks about early life in De Beque, Colorado, including social life and various places they lived, the railroad, sheep trails, De Beque businesses and landmarks, and her work in the local Republican Party. The interview was conducted...
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Voice Recording
Bill Callahan, Creston Bailey, and James Shaw discuss the history of early Twentieth century Grand Junction. The three men talk about their fathers: Thomas F. Callahan, the owner of Callahan’s Mortuary (now Callahan-Edfast); Dwight B. Bailey, the owner of the D.B. Bailey grocery store; and James Scott Shaw, a rancher, miner, and owner of the Midland Garage. They talk about Main Street businesses, including Sampliner’s. They remember the wagons...
Format:
Voice Recording
To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play Mesa County Minerals.
This...
Format:
Compound
In a two-part interview carried out over two days, Howard Shults talks about his experiences as a rancher and auctioneer on Colorado’s Western Slope. In part one, he talks about the arrival of his parents in Mesa County in 1903, their teaching careers at Pear Park and in Fruita, and his father’s move to a career as an auctioneer. He speaks about his childhood in Grand Junction and Collbran, his graduation from Grand Junction High School in 1923,...
Format:
Voice Recording
In a general meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society, Armand de Beque describes the history of oil shale development in De Beque and the Piceance Basin, Colorado. He offers three stories for how it was discovered that oil shale can burn. He describes the founding of the Shale Oil Syndicate, an organization founded by his father, Dr. W.A.E. de Beque, William R. Warren, George Newton, and William Dinkel. He explains the lengthy process the Shale...
