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Showing 1 - 19 of 19 , query time: 0.04s
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He was a Telluride mining cook who lost his leg in a mill during a time of labor strife. His entire lower leg had been amputated, and he walked on a two-by-four wooden peg, which is how he got his name. His son, Earl Foster, stated that he battled a morphine addiction related to his injury. He worked at the Columbia and Alta Mines. He learned surveying by correspondence and, after the accident, moved with his family to Norwood, where he prospected....
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Laura Foster discusses John “Peg-leg” Foster and his involvement in Telluride mining strikes, and her life as a pioneer woman in the Paradox Valley. 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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Kip Wood recites original poetry, talks about his life as a cowboy, and discusses his acquaintance with John “Peg-leg” Foster, Butch Cassidy, and other memorable and disreputable characters from Colorado history. 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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Laura Foster talks about moving from Pennsylvania to Telluride, Colorado in 1890, with a description of their journey on foot with two burros over Ophir Pass, and about pioneer life near Telluride, including the time she helped her mother birth a baby in absence of any help (some or all of which may be a tall tale). She also gives an embellished story about her time as a mining camp and railroad cook, and gives what seems to be an inaccurate account...
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Siblings Ella O'Brien and Earl Foster talk about the history of their pioneer family in the Paradox Valley area of Montrose County, Colorado, about living near and working in the mines, about their father John "Peg-leg" Foster and his involvement with labor issues in Telluride's mines, and the murder of Henry "Indian Henry" Huff by their stepfather John Keski. They also discuss the discrimination that Utes and other Native Americans faced from whites...
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He was born in Telluride and grew up on a homestead in the Paradox Valley area of Montrose County. He and his sister Ella often stayed with their grandparents Sarah and James Bristol while they were growing up, as their parents worked on a nearby ranch. He began working in and around the mines at the age of nine and learned to temper steel. In the 1910's, his family moved to a boarding house for miners in Bull Canyon that was owned by W.L. Cummings....
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A homemaker, printer's devil and poet. She was born in Norwood, Colorado and raised on a homestead in the Paradox Valley area of Montrose. She and her brother Earl often stayed with their grandparents Sarah and James Bristol while they were growing up, as their parents worked on a nearby ranch. In the 1910's, her family moved to a boarding house for miners in Bull Canyon that was owned by W.L. Cummings. There, her father John "Peg-leg" Foster and...
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He was a Finish immigrant to the Paradox Valley area of Montrose County, Colorado. US Census records show him living as a boarder in Naturita by 1910, and working in a Vanadium Mine. He married Laura (Bristol) Foster in 1911, sometime after her divorce from John "Peg-leg" Foster. Keski and Laura Divorced in 1918. Keski was friends with Henry "Indian Henry" Huff and shot him dead after a dispute in a card game. He served in the Russian Army prior to...
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Kip Wood knew John "Peg-Leg" Foster during his youth in Telluride, Colorado. Wood was a poet who thought of his poems during his time riding the range as a cowboy, and when he was in jail. He went to school until 5th grade, and was on his own from the age of thirteen. He worked for the Caby Yard and other ranching outfits. He also wintered once with Butch Cassidy, and knew Jim Clark of Telluride, who was sheriff when Cassidy’s gang robbed the bank....
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Laura Foster was born in Pennsylvania and claimed to have moved to Telluride, Colorado, around 1890, when she was two years old. There, she said, her father was a miner who worked the night shift, and her mother took in washing. Yet U.S. Census records from 1900 show her still living in Pennsylvania with her siblings and parents. Foster claimed to have married John L. “Peg-leg” Foster when she was thirteen, but Colorado marriage records show her...
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Wayne Farley, a geophysicist who was involved in the Western Slope’s uranium boom, talks about methods of prospecting for uranium, including the use of airplanes and helicopters, and describes the characteristics of rocks that contains the element. 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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He was born in Iowa to Franklin R. "Frank" Smith and Mary Anna "Minnie" (Laird) Smith. When he was three years old, the family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and again to Grand Junction in 1895, when he was six. The family moved several times within Grand Junction, living at one time next to a saloon at 4th and Main Streets, behind the Brownson’s store. Their first “real” home in town was at 444 Rood Avenue, on or near the site of the...
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Dr. Everett Munro discusses his service in the U.S. Army’s medical reserves during World War I, early vaccination campaigns in Grand Junction, life as a rural doctor doing house calls, and other aspects of early Mesa County history. 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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Laird Smith talks about his grandfather Frank Smith’s severe case of Tuberculosis that caused the doctor to move with his family to Grand Junction, Colorado. He describes the apartment next to a saloon where the family lived on Main Street, where drunken men would sometimes crawl in through the windows by mistake. He discusses his father Silmon Smith’s “spartan” upbringing, his camping alone on the Grand Mesa for long stretches when he was...
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Weston and Nellie Massey discuss their family’s involvement in the earliest days of Gateway, Colorado. The couple also touch on the presence of Indians in the Mesa County area, the system of delivering mail, social activities, cattle herding and cattle thieving, Uranium mining and mining equipment in the Gateway area, and methods of travel via trails and mapped out routes. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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