Mesa County (Colo.) -- History
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Bunk Weimer recalls settling on land at the current location of Colorado Mesa University as a child in 1903, where the boys slept in a cave and the rest of the family in tents before the land was leveled for farming. He talks about helping with the construction of the first Mesa County Fairgrounds (on the site of the present day Lincoln Park), including the Lincoln Park Barn. He discusses helping his father pour foundations for several prominent buildings...
Format:
Voice Recording
Wyatt Wood and Al Look discuss their involvement in the construction of Rim Rock Drive on the Colorado National Monument, early scenic photography of Mesa County, early Mesa County bands and parades, and Wood’s time spent working for the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce. 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...
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 The Making of a Legend:...
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 Rimrock Road: A Memorial,...
Format:
Voice Recording
On the occasion of the Mesa County Historical Society annual picnic (circa 1980), Julia Harris, an early Grand Mesa resident, lectures about the history of the area, with information about a 1910 earthquake in the Cameo area, the construction of the Plateau Canyon Road, De Beque in the 1880’s, the captivity of Josephine Meeker on the Grand Mesa after the Meeker Massacre, an old Native American cemetery near De Beque, and Republican Party happenings....
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...
Format:
Voice Recording
Colonel Harold R. Booth describes his experience working as the District Inspector for the Colorado-Wyoming District Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). For a time he worked for a Forestry Camp in Mesa County. This camp hosted members involved in building the road up to the Grand Mesa. He also talks briefly about his military service during three wars. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County...
Format:
Compound
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...
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 Love Object: The Early...
Format:
Voice Recording
Glen Brunk describes his career with the Mesa County Road Department from 1919 to 1929. He talks about the equipment that the road department used and about pouring the first asphalt in the county at the intersection of 30 and F Roads. He recalls his family’s move to De Beque in 1929, when he became an employee of the Colorado State Highway department. He remembers maintaining state roads, including the Plateau Canyon Highway from De Beque to the...
Format:
Compound
Al Look talks about his involvement with the International Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives, about his On Guard column in the Daily Sentinel, about taking the first aerial photographs of the Grand Mesa, and about the history of the Avalon Theater. He also discusses getting lost while hunting agates, the Lincoln Park Zoo, John Otto’s construction of trails on the Grand Mesa, and other aspects of Mesa County history. The interview was...
Format:
Voice Recording
Harry Gardner discusses his life in Mesa County as a road construction worker for 50 years, working on projects throughout the county and helping to build many roads. He also talks about his love of horse racing. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Harold Stafford talks about coming to Western Colorado during the Great Depression to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). He describes working on the construction of Rim Rock Drive as part of the Colorado National Monument CCC camp. He discusses the Rim Rock Drive road-building disaster, in which nine men were killed by a mistimed blast. He speaks about Rod Day, the education coordinator in the camp, and a former newspaper man who had murdered...
Format:
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...
Format:
Voice Recording
Kenneth Thompson describes his life growing up on a farm on Glade Park, Colorado during the early 1900s. Kenneth also discusses the working conditions while employed for the National Park Service during the early days of the Colorado National Monument, the slow pace of life and the social aspects of living on Glade Park, hunting and killing a bear, and stories of the Indians who lived in Mesa County. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County...
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Voice Recording
Dick Williams talks about the games he played with children as a boy in the downtown area of Grand Junction, including hide and go seek and kick the can. He remembers playing sandlot baseball and other games in a vacant lot on 9th Street between Grand and White Avenues. He recalls swimming in ditches and canals, and ice skating in what is now Lincoln Park. He speaks about competing in athletics in high school and college, and in Pioneer Clubs, which...
Format:
Voice Recording
Elbert Miracle talks about working with the Civilian Conservation Corps crews who built Rim Rock Drive on the Colorado National Monument, and about the accident that killed nine local men, including his brother-in-law. He also talks about working on the Federal crews that built the Land’s End Observatory on the Grand Mesa. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums...
Format:
Voice Recording
Lilly Lawson recalls her life in the Glade Park area of Mesa County, Colorado. She talks about her father, who was a Methodist minister and homesteader. She describes people and places in the Glade Park area. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
