Grand Junction, Mesa County, Colorado Archive Search Results
Showing
21 - 34
of 34
, query time: 0.02s
Format:
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...
Format:
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...
Format:
Voice Recording
Emmett Elizondo talks about his arrival in the United States from the Basque region of Spain and his first sheepherding job in Buffalo, Wyoming. He remembers building his own herds through a sheep leasing deal with a business partner in Salt Lake City. He recalls his move to Colorado’s Western Slope and eastern Utah, where he amassed a large sheep operation and owned 25,400 acres by 1980. He speaks about his community involvements, including his...
Format:
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...
Format:
Compound
During a panel discussion of the Mesa County Historical Society, Kenneth Baird discusses the settlement and incorporation of Grand Junction, the creation of the Grand Junction Town Company, early city government, town building, and early municipal ordinances. Professor Don Mackendrick talks about James W. Bucklin’s draft of a new city charter in 1910, which established a commission form of government. He mentions progressive reforms that put the...
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
Jessie Brisbin talks about her early life in Kansas, living in a sod house, working on the farm, attending school, dancing, and making clothes from flour sacks. She speaks about country life and community there. She describes her marriage at the age of eighteen, moving to Nebraska in 1907, and moving again to Colorado by covered wagon in 1913. She recalls her life in Collbran and her husband’s job in a coal mine. She remembers living on various...
Format:
Voice Recording
In the third of nine recordings, John Goulet, a former advertising salesman with the Daily Sentinel newspaper, relates his experiences and travels in Grand Junction and Western Colorado in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He talks about traveling to Black Canyon with his friend Al Look. He remembers many of the merchants that he met as an advertising salesman. He describes Grand Junction’s Diamond Jubilee celebration of its 75th anniversary as a city....
Format:
Voice Recording
Anna Foster talks about teaching at the Mesa School, beginning in 1908. She remembers some of the teachers and students at the school, and going sledding with them for fun. She speaks about the role of the Mesa’s Methodist church in providing community for people of all Christian faiths. She describes stagecoaches that delivered between towns, traveling the old Hogback Road from Palisade, and the building of the Plateau Canyon Road. She recalls...
Format:
Voice Recording
Armand de Lavillette de Beque lectures about the history of theater in Mesa County, Colorado in a meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society. He talks about productions put on in DeBeque and Fruita, and about the general audience. He discusses his teaching career and how many plays he directed as an educator. This interview also includes speeches from Nina Brouse and Hellen (Hawxhurst) Young. These ladies talk about how they helped produce plays,...
Format:
Compound
Walter Flasche talks about his birth in Nebraska and moving to De Beque, Colorado with his parents via covered wagon around 1908. He remembers life in the Roan Creek area, severe drought and heavy snows. He recalls battles between cattle ranchers and sheep ranchers in the area. He speaks about his work as a logger and his work in the nascent oil shale industry. He describes how hard the life of a rancher and oil shale worker was, and how his wife...
Format:
Voice Recording
Warren Kiefer talks about his career as a fireman and engineer on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and working the line between Grand Junction, Colorado and Salt Lake City. He gives specifics about the technical aspects of the fireman position on a steam locomotive. He speaks about the relationship between the fireman and the engineer, and tells stories about comical and contentious interactions between different workers. He explains the purpose...
Format:
Compound
Mary Maluy talks about her birth in Kansas, her marriage to Clement Maluy, and their move to the New Liberty area of Mesa County in 1918. She remembers popular dances and other social activities. She recalls the New Liberty School and its history. She speaks about the family’s homestead, learning to irrigate, their first crops, and raising poultry. She gives some history of the town of Mack. She remembers getting electricty in the home and then...
Format:
Voice Recording
Ethel Keleher talks about growing up in Kansas, moving to a ranch near Trinidad when she was nineteen, and her family. She remembers her husband, children, and how cancer affected their lives. She speaks about living on a homestead in Fowler, where they raised poultry, and sold eggs and milk. She recalls arriving in Mesa County in 1923, shopping and riding the streetcar in Grand Junction, and businesses in Fruita. She speaks about working with fruit...