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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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Theodore Simineo talks about the history of violence between sheep and cattle ranchers near Whitewater, Colorado. He remembers helping to drive cattle over the Grand Mesa at the age of six, other aspects of cattle drives, and his life as a cowboy. He describes community dances that took place in Kannah Creek schools or community halls. He speaks about the transportation of cattle by rail from Gunnison and Whitewater. He talks about working as a coal...
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Dick Lloyd talks about cattle ranching in Western Colorado both before and after the Taylor Grazing Act, about moving cattle around to different grazing areas in Colorado, and about shipping them to Denver by rail via the De Beque Stockyard. He speaks about training horses and using horses to herd cattle. Bertha Lloyd discusses her courtship with Dick, their chivaree and their marriage. The two of them describe homesteading in a log cabin on the Grand...
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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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William Raber talks about his family’s ranch in the Kannah Creek area of Mesa County, Colorado, and about the development of reservoirs and water projects, beginning with the city of Grand Junction’s diversion of water from Kannah Creek around 1910. He also talks about traveling by train with cattle that he intended to sell in Los Angeles, and about discrimination that he experienced during World War I as the son of German immigrant. The interview...
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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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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.
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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 The Sheep War, about...
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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 Roundups. This...
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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,...
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Vern Wood discusses his life as an early Mesa County resident, homesteader in Pinon Mesa, and cattle rancher on Glade Park. Wood and his wife Bernice also discuss the building of the Serpent’s Trail on the Colorado National Monument, life at local schools, country dances on Glade Park, transportation methods, and murder scandals that occurred around Glade Park. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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William Ela talks about his family’s arrival in the Little Dolores River area of Mesa County in 1881 and their establishment of the 2-V Ranch. He tells stories about his grandfather, the pioneer rancher and Grand Junction town mayor William Phillips Ela. He remembers his grandfather’s horse Looney and his escapades. He speaks about the dangers of travel to and from Glade Park in the early days. He recalls stories passed down about his ancestors’...
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James Franklin discusses his life as a cowboy in Mesa County, Garfield County, and elsewhere on Colorado’s Western Slope. Franklin touches on cooking over the campfire, means of travel, cures for ailments, training horses, the first rodeo in which he participated, a large flood that destroyed his mother’s farm, and dealing with inclement weather on the range. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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Morgan Goss discusses his time as a cowboy in Mesa County during the early 1900’s. 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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In a recording made for his son, Don Rogers talks about his family’s cattle ranch on Pinon Mesa in the 1910’s, about getting lost in the wilderness at the age of six, about an expert tracker named Avery Burford who led the search party, and about being found the next morning after he spent the night alone on a sandbar of East Creek. He recalls a gunfight between cowboys Louis Stewart and Blue, a shooting by a man named Pete Lapham, and tensions...