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Frank Simonetti Sr. talks about his arrival in the United States from southern Italy in 1914 and his eventual arrival in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1918, where he began a long career with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. He remembers a fire that burnt down the D&RG icehouse, the railroad shop strike in 1922, and working a seven-day work week for thirty years. He recalls different kinds of locomotives. Angela Simonetti recalls growing up in the...
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Charlotte (Jackson) Claar describes growing up on a homestead in Cheyenne County, Colorado, where the family witched for water, built an adobe house, and held jack rabbit drives. She speaks about moving to Grand Valley, Colorado (now Parachute) in 1920. She talks about her 37-year career as a teacher and then principal in Grand Valley, at the Clifton School, and at the Fruitvale School. She discusses her father and husband’s careers on the railroad....
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Bill Rump talks about his father Charlie Rump and his roll in developing the Redlands in Mesa County, Colorado as a member of the Redlands Company and the Redlands Water and Power Company. He recounts the efforts of those companies in creating orchards and other agricultural enterprises on the Redlands. He speaks about the Redlands School, roads, sports, youth activities, and other aspects of life on the Redlands and in Grand Junction. He remembers...
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Elizabeth Angus talks about teaching in Atchee, Colorado, now a ghost town, in the early 1920’s. She remembers the life and history of the company towns that served the Uintah Railway, a gilsonite mining enterprise. She speaks about the Ute people who would visit the general store in Mack, Colorado. She describes certain employees of the Uintah. She talks about Baxter Pass and the environment of the Bookcliffs. The interview was conducted by the...
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Helen and Marion Bowman describe the early days of Mesa County: including school life and the rivalry between Grand Junction and Fruita High Schools, the social scene, and the D&RG Railroad. 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 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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Gertrude Rader talks at length about the Tabequache band of the Ute and her frequent contact with them when they camped in Kannah Creek during their annual return migration from the mountains of Colorado to the Uintah Reservation in Utah in the early Twentieth century. She discusses her memories of Chipeta and describes Ute customs she observed. She talks about her pioneering grandfather, and about a serious sheep and cattleman conflict that occurred...
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Early Grand Junction resident Ruth Larson describes her life as a teacher and principal in Mesa County schools. 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 Wayne Aspinall: Scholar,...
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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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Dorothy Tindall talks about the early days of Whitewater, Colorado as a rail center for cattle and stock. She speaks about the administrative organization of schools prior to the consolidation of Mesa County School District 51, her development of Mesa County’s first school hot lunch program at the Star School, games kids played at recess, about her work educating the children of migrant laborers who lived in La Colonia, and her role in the development...
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Rufus Hirons talks about his education in Grand Junction schools, and about teachers and school district employees (including his father, Walter Hirons). He also touches on the Fruita to Grand Junction Interurban line, sheep ranching with his grandfather, and local Italian Americans. 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...
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Dr. Andrew Gulliford, head of The Country School Legacy Project (a survey of rural schools over eight states, funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities) presents information from the project in a lecture at the Museum of Western Colorado. The lecture includes reflections from rural school teachers in Colorado, including teaching techniques, discipline problems, infectious diseases, and issues with poorly constructed buildings. Teachers also...
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Ruth Tilton talks about her involvement in Tri-M, the Girl Scouts, a bridge club, and other clubs and societies upon moving to Palisade, Colorado. She speaks about skiing on the Grand Mesa with her husband Forrest Tilton in the 1930’s, and about skiing near Leadville. She discusses the history of the Palisade Public Library from its humble beginnings inside of a downtown store, and her involvement in recording and preserving Palisade’s local history....
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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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In this recording, Alta Nolan reads the memoirs of Cordelia Files. Files talks about the history of her parents and maternal grandparents who homesteaded in the Fruita, Colorado area in the 1890’s. She describes the fruit growing operation on the homestead. She recounts seeing the Ute people and Chipeta when they came in the fall to dry fruit from the orchard. She remembers early Fruita, with its dirt streets and plank sidewalks. She speaks about...