Colorado -- Social life and customs
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Carl Gesberg discusses life growing up on Orchard Mesa and the history of that area. He talks about dating, camping and other youthful activities, holidays, curing meats, and the region’s development. 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
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 Sousa Day in Grand...
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Voice Recording
An interview with Howard Shults, a longtime resident of Mesa County who worked as an auctioneer, farmer, and member of the state land commission. He discusses the business of corralling horses, horse trading, racing horses for money, the Cross Ranch, and social events such as rodeos, fairs, and dances. He also talks about hauling coal in a horse-drawn wagon and the history of coal mines in the valley, about the history of the old fairgrounds at Lincoln...
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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 Christmas Memories,...
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 Christmas Memories,...
Format:
Voice Recording
Early settler Gladys Carnahan describes her life growing up in Grand Junction, Colorado, including horse and buggy excursions with her father, school and social activities with friends, and attending the Mesa County Fair. She talks about her early involvement in the First United Methodist Church. She also discusses becoming ill during the Spanish Flu pandemic, furnishings in her family’s home, and being forced to support her family on a teacher’s...
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Voice Recording
Veda McBeth talks about people and places of Mack, Colorado, where her family owned and operated the general store in the early Twentieth century. She describes in detail the colorful hobos that she encountered along the railroad, the thousands of sheep in the Mack stockyards, and large sheep drives to Grand Junction. She also speaks about catching the Denver Rio Grande train from Mack to Grand Junction, the Uintah Railway, and the loneliness of homestead...
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Voice Recording
Al Look describes the history of Faquawah, a group of Mesa County, Colorado businessmen who enjoyed camping and carousing in Southeastern Utah. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
*A recording of the Faquawah meeting itself was not put online, but can be requested at the Museums of Western Colorado.
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Voice Recording
Frieda Miller talks about her pioneer ranching family’s arrival in Palisade, Colorado, and about the exploits of her colorful father, Eben “Mac” Miller. She speaks about her school days in Palisade and Grand Junction, and about childhood games she played (such as Duck on a Rock). She discusses her later life and marriage with farmer and carpenter George Weaver, and her long period as a vegetarian. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County...
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Voice Recording
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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Voice Recording
Alice Johnson discusses the pioneering history of her family in Kansas. She then talks about growing tomatoes and working in the greenhouses with her husband on their family farm in Mesa County, about attending Ross Business College, jobs she held subsequent to her education, and her friends and social life. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the...
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Voice Recording
Josephine Dickey, an early African-American resident of Grand Junction, talks about her mother’s illness and stepping in to care for her siblings after her mother’s death. She remembers her mother’s doctor and other doctors that cared for the family. She recalls her father William Wesley Taylor III and how he worked to put his brother and sister through college. She talks about African-Americans as portrayed in television programs, especially...
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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...
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Voice Recording
James Brouse discusses moving and going to school in Glade Park, Colorado as a young boy in 1915. He tells tales of cowpunching in the canyons near Westwater, homesteading, the difficulties of dry farming, and the methods and difficulties of transportation into town from up on Glade Park. He also talks about local murders, sheep and cattlemen wars, and the history of different schools in the area. His wife Ellen (Morse) Brouse, longtime Mesa County...
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Voice Recording
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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Voice Recording
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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Voice Recording
Loyd Files talks about his early life in Kansas, moving to Colorado with his family via covered wagon in 1914, and the process of filing for a homestead. He remembers homesteading with his parents in Lamar, Colorado, and with his brother in Glade Park in 1920. He recalls working on the crew that built the Serpents Trail over the Colorado National Monument, meeting John Otto, and helping build Rimrock Drive over the Monument. He speaks about his marriage...
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Voice Recording
James Earl Shaw and Creston Ralph Bailey talk about the history of their families in Mesa County, and discuss their families’ roles in the automobile and grocery businesses respectively. They mention people and places important to Grand Junction. They also reminisce about their experiences at the Presbyterian church camp on the Grand Mesa, and all the antics they pulled while growing up. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History...
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Voice Recording
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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Voice Recording
During a Mesa County Public Library program, Michael Husband speaks about the many cultural activities in early Grand Junction and Mesa County, Colorado, including music, dance, and theater. He names top performers who came to Grand Junction, including the Russian Ballet, John Philip Sousa, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony. He discusses the role of Walter Walker in supporting and promoting the arts. He lists the many venues that...
