Grand Junction (Colo.) -- History
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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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John Collier explains his childhood growing up as a homesteader in Pinon Mesa and the Glade Park area, and living in a tent until a cabin could be built. He talks about how his father made money in real estate, farming hay, selling horses, selling lumber for corrals, raising sheep and cattle, and skating on the frozen Redlands Canal. He mentions important landmarks and buildings in and around Grand Junction, Colorado. The interview was conducted by...
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John Collier talks about his upbringing on a farm in Grand Junction, Colorado, on ranchland and farmland in the Redlands, and on a homestead in Pinon Mesa. He speaks about the history of the Sleeper and Ela family’s ranching operations on Pinon Mesa. He describes his Uncle Joe Collier, who served as the Mesa County Sheriff during Prohibition, and a bootlegger’s attempt to blackmail him. He discusses what he perceives as the effect of uranium prospecting...
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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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Jean and Benerita Dolores (Velazquez) Urruty discuss Jean’s immigrant experience, the life of a Basque sheepherder, Basque culture, and sheepherding in Mesa County. 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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Voice Recording
Edwin “Ted” Winterburn talks about the many Grand Junction, Colorado buildings built by his father, Samuel E. Winterburn, including the Majestic Theater (now the Mesa Theater). He discusses growing up in Grand Junction and working as an electrician and car mechanic. He speaks about moving around the country a great deal and working various electrician jobs at the start of World War ll, then returning to the Grand Valley area to retire in the...
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Compound
Robert Gustafson talks about the Wisemen’s Club, a Mesa County social and charitable organization to which he belonged in the 1930’s and 1940’s. He remembers the local dance halls and the big bands that played them. He describes growing up in a Swedish portion of the Globeville neighborhood in Denver, his educational background, and how he began working at the Public Service Company at the age of fourteen. He discusses his subsequent career...
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Local historian David Sundal talks about the history of Grand Junction, Colorado’s First Church of the Nazarene and about his father Olaf Sundal, a clergyman who presided over the church for many years, beginning in 1930. He talks about the role of local churches in providing food relief to local people and to Dust Bowl migrants during the Great Depression. He also speaks about the row of churches on White Avenue and about the history of churches...
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Ruth Smith and Isabella Cunningham, former reporters for The Daily Sentinel, recall their careers at the newspaper during the 1920’s through 1940’s. Cunningham talks about covering railroad news and events, including the institution of a sixteen-hour-day law for workers. They remember two young children that were killed when playing with dynamite in Fruitvale. They describe the annual Christmas party for needy children that was put on each year...
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Compound
Winifred Bull recalls the childhood of her father, Dr. Herman Bull Sr., and his life as one of the original doctors in Mesa County, Colorado. She talks about the prevalence of Typhoid fever and waterborne illnesses in Grand Junction, known among doctors as “Belly Ache Flats” before the advent of modern water treatment facilities. She discusses her father’s medical practice, his love of horse racing, and how he rode his horses to house calls....
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Compound
Levi Morse discusses the history of Mesa County, Colorado, including fruit growing, drinking water from the Gunnison River and its link to typhoid fever, the YMCA, and the creamery business. He also talks extensively about social events such as the Mesa County Fair, and gives a firsthand account of the first motion picture showing in Grand Junction. June Morse talks about teaching at Fruitvale High School, community organizations and social gatherings....
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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 Glimpses of Old Grand...
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Voice Recording
Nora McGinley Flynn discusses her experience growing up in the Grand Valley in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries, her career as one of Mesa County's early schoolteachers, her family’s involvement with the founding of Grand Junction, and her family’s various employment positions with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and...
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Eugene Perry talks about his childhood in Grand Junction’s Riverside neighborhood. He speaks about working for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad from the time he was thirteen years old, his career building track as a section foreman, and the history of D&RG in Grand Junction. He discusses landmarks such as Bowman’s slaughterhouse, the Pest House, and the town’s ice houses. He reminisces about a youth curfew that was in place in Grand Junction...
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Josephine Biggs discusses her memories of Cross Orchards and owner “Colonel” Bill Cross, horseback riding excursions, and the LaCourt Hotel. She also talks about her work with the YWCA during a time when many young girls were “getting out of hand with all the boys coming home” from World War I, Lincoln Park and Lincoln Park School, her husband’s development of the Lincoln Park Neighborhood, and some details of the home they lived in there....
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Craig Aupperle talks about Grand Junction, Colorado’s first cemeteries, funeral houses, and mortuaries. He also gives an account of pioneer funeral rites and ceremonies, including burials led by horse-drawn buggies. He then discusses the locations of early roads, including the Rhone Creek Toll Road from Mesa County to Glenwood Springs, and the Hogback Road to Plateau Valley. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a...
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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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Janielle Westermire talks about growing up in Grand Junction, Colorado, where her father ministered at the Handy Chapel. She speaks about feeling she lived in a safe, close knit community, but also about racism she experienced as a child. She describes the inspiring life of her father, Harry Butler, who worked in hydrology with the Bureau of Reclamation before becoming the first African-American school board member in Mesa County and the first African-American...
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During a lecture on the history of St. Mary’s Hospital (at a Mesa County Historical Society meeting), Pat LeMaster talks about the history of the St. Mary’s Hospital’s founding agency, the Sisters of Charity. She recalls the history of doctors in the Grand Valley and the conditions they dealt with. She tells the history of St. Mary’s from its inception in 1896 until 1983. She speaks about hospital services during the Great Depression. She...
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David Combs talks about the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, the ethnic makeup of Minneapolis (where Mr. Combs grew up), and the history of policing and police brutality there. He discusses the worldwide movement for social justice that grew from protests against Floyd’s killing, the response to Floyd’s killing in Grand Junction, Colorado, and the protest movement that took shape here. He addresses differences within the local African-American...
