Garfield County (Colo.) -- History
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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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Voice Recording
Jim Franklin discusses the pioneer lives of his parents, who came to the Roan Creek, Colorado area from Arkansas in 1887. He also talks about his days as a cowboy, mountain lions, and the history of De Beque. 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
Gertrude McKay, the first white child born in the De Beque, Colorado vicinity, talks about farm life and her childhood in the Roan Creek area. 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
Armand de Beque, son of De Beque, Colorado founder Wallace A.E. de Beque, talks about the history of the oil shale industry in Western Colorado. 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
Jo (O’Quinn) Ferguson talks about making meals for ranch hands and other aspects of ranching with her husband George Gibson Ferguson in Garfield County. She speaks about churches, clubs, and the social and community life of the area. She describes her education in Louisiana and Colorado and her long teaching career, with an emphasis on her work with Central High School students at the end of her career. She talks about the history of the Roan Creek...
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Compound
In a speech given during the oil shale boom, USGS oil shale supervisor Eric Hoffman talks about oil shale reserves in Western Colorado and the West, with focus on the Piceance Basin and the Green River Basin. He speaks about the potential for large oil shale development, the chemistry of oil shale, the geology of locations where oil shale is found, and the large amount of water needed for oil shale processing. He discusses the oil shale boom centered...
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Voice Recording
Orville and Helen Altenbern discuss their early lives in both De Beque and the nearby Roan Creek area of Garfield County. They also talk about life and work on a sheep and cattle ranch. 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.
Format:
Voice Recording
Gladys Earnest talks about her job as a home demonstration agent in Garfield County and Mesa County, Colorado, helping rural people with soap-making, canning, and other personal, social, and economic development issues during the Great Depression. She also talks about the history of Glenwood Springs, her husband’s construction career, horseback trips to Trapper’s Lake and other excursions. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History...
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Voice Recording
Mary Plaisted talks about growing up in the Milldale area around the sugar beet factory in Grand Junction, Colorado, and about the brothels and red-light district nearby. She describes having to beg and take odd cleaning and sewing jobs to support she and her children, and the kind strangers that helped her. She mentions the many places she lived in Grand Junction, the floods common in the Riverside neighborhood, and living in a close-knit Italian...
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Compound
Bertha Schlegel discusses growing up in Loma, Colorado and helping her family raise beets for Holly Sugar, and making sauerkraut, pickled apples, pickled watermelon and other ethnic food with her mother, who was a German immigrant from Russia. She also remembers her education and school activities throughout her childhood, including field days at the Fruita Central School and Grand Junction High School. She talks about obtaining a teaching degree,...
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Voice Recording
In a general meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society, Armand de Beque describes the history of oil shale development in De Beque and the Piceance Basin, Colorado. He offers three stories for how it was discovered that oil shale can burn. He describes the founding of the Shale Oil Syndicate, an organization founded by his father, Dr. W.A.E. de Beque, William R. Warren, George Newton, and William Dinkel. He explains the lengthy process the Shale...
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Voice Recording
John J. Collier talks about his career as a teacher servicing Mesa County country schools in the 1930's and 1940's. He talks about his education at Mesa College, his hobbies as a teacher, the pranks his students would pull, all-night dances at the schoolhouse, as well as programs and plays that were open to all. The interview was conducted by the Mesa county Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western...
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Compound
Former Grand Junction Mayor Jane Quimby talks about her upbringing in Rifle and Grand Junction, Colorado, and her studies. She reminisces about her husband’s profession, being a mother and homemaker for six children, and teaching flute and piano. She remembers substitute teaching from 1967 to 1971 and how that challenge gave her the courage to seek political office. She speaks about the support that she received from other women in the community...
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Voice Recording
Vesta Fitzpatrick talks about her mother’s skill as a seemstress and how she made the family’s clothes. She remembers family life and entertainment during her youth, her parents reciting poems, and her father’s storytelling abilities. She recalls taking care of the family from a young age after her mother became ill. She speaks about seeing Buffalo Bill’s wild West show in Lincoln Park and going to chautauquas in Collbran. She remembers the...
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Voice Recording
Vesta Fitzpatrick talks about growing up in Buena Vista, New Castle, and De Beque, Colorado. She remembers the family’s homestead and life in De Beque, and her role as a homemaker from an early age due to her mother’s illness. She speaks about country school life. She details the dances that took place, including costume, masquerade, and “hard time” dances. She recalls living in Uravan during World War II, where her grandchildren played in...
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Voice Recording
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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Voice Recording
Vesta Fitzpatrick speaks about a railroad accident that occurred west of the town of New Castle, Colorado around 1900. She talks about her father, a Union Civil War veteran. She discusses poetry and short stories that she wrote about her youth. She remembers working in a rooming house in Uravan for workers from Oakridge, Tennessee during secretive mining for the first atomic bomb, and receiving a letter of appreciation for her work after the first...
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Event
On May 2, 1982, Exxon announced that it was pulling out of its 60% share in the Colony Shale Oil Project near Parachute, Colorado due to the rapidly declining price of oil and the high expenses of producing synthetic oil from shale. The effects on the local economy were immediate and devastating, causing businesses to fold, real estate values to plummet, and leading to layoffs of 2,200 Exxon workers. In the years between 1983 and 1985, nearly 24,000...
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Compound
Penelope Eberhart talks about her father Harry Brown’s introduction to oil shale while on a family vacation in Denver in the 1920’s, his subsequent move to the De Beque area on the Western Slope, and his early business venture in oil shale with the Index Oil Shale Company. She speaks about the mining and milling process for shale, and about a biproduct of the milling process marketed as plant fertilizer called Index Soil Vitalizer. She talks about...
Format:
Compound
Harold Kissell talks about being born in a coal camp near New Castle, Colorado, his career working as a coal miner and foreman in Cameo, and his father’s career as a coal miner for the Colorado Fuel and Iron company. He tells the story of the Vulcan Mine and the mine explosions that killed many men. He recounts the superstition that women inside a mine brought bad luck. He speaks of the diverse workforce in local coal mines, including African-Americans...
