All accounts now require passwords. Please click HERE for more details.
Library Hours: Monday-Thursday 9:30am-7:30pm, Friday-Saturday 9:30am-5:00pm and Sunday 12pm-5pm
Public computer use is limited to one 2 hour computer session daily.

Archive Search Results


Showing 21 - 31 of 31 , query time: 0.02s
Thumbnail for 'Interview with Frank G. Mancuso'
Format:
Voice Recording
Frank Mancuso talks about his early life in the Riverside neighborhood of Grand Junction, Colorado after immigrating from Italy, and about Grand Junction’s Italian American community. He also discusses his long-time employment working for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, fires to the ice house, D&RG roundhouse and the freight depot, playing baseball under the Fifth Street viaduct, several local people and buildings, and other aspects of area...
Thumbnail for 'Interview with Frank Simonetti Sr. and Angelina
Format:
Voice Recording
Frank Simonetti Sr. talks about his arrival in the United States from southern Italy in 1914 and his eventual arrival in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1918, where he began a long career with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. He remembers a fire that burnt down the D&RG icehouse, the railroad shop strike in 1922, and working a seven-day work week for thirty years. He recalls different kinds of locomotives. Angela Simonetti recalls growing up in the...
Thumbnail for 'First Interview with Ann (Reese) Stokes'
Format:
Compound
Ann Stokes talks about homesteading on East Orchard Mesa after her family moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1904. She remembers her father working on the “fancy” masonry for the Grand Junction train station. She recalls living in a one-room log cabin and sharing that cabin with a horse for an evening. She speaks about the development of irrigation on East Orchard Mesa and her father’s peach orchard. She describes walking with her siblings four...
Thumbnail for 'Interview with Eugene Biassi Perry'
Format:
Voice Recording
Eugene Perry talks about his childhood in Grand Junction’s Riverside neighborhood. He speaks about working for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad from the time he was thirteen years old, his career building track as a section foreman, and the history of D&RG in Grand Junction. He discusses landmarks such as Bowman’s slaughterhouse, the Pest House, and the town’s ice houses. He reminisces about a youth curfew that was in place in Grand Junction...
Thumbnail for 'Lecture by Silmon Laird Smith: Autobiography and early Grand Junction'
Format:
Voice Recording
In a lecture to the Grand Junction Lions Club, given just days before he died, prominent water law attorney Silmon Smith talks about his life and the history of Grand Junction (the lecture was broadcast hours later on KREX radio). He remembers his family’s arrival in the town in the 1890’s and early development in Grand Junction. He recalls a colorful Main Street filled with saloons. He speaks about his father Frank Smith’s respiratory illness,...
Thumbnail for 'Second Interview with Craig B. Aupperle'
Format:
Compound
Craig B. Aupperle discusses the early Twentieth century history of Grand Junction. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Thumbnail for 'John Francis Goulet: Memoirs of Grand Junction and Western Colorado, Part Two'
Format:
Voice Recording
In the second 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 playing the piano and touring the Western Slope with the Star Lighters, an orchestra from Grand Junction. He plays the piano piece, “Back in Your Own Backyard” and speaks about arranging music for other performers....
Thumbnail for 'Interview with Russell Charles Johnson'
Format:
Compound
Russell Johnson, a native of Grand Junction, Colorado, talks about his early life in town. He speaks about his long career working for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad as a carman. He recalls the Grand Junction depot fire that was caused when munitions, headed for use in World War II, exploded on the tracks. He discusses his father’s career on the railroad, working on narrow gauge trains and helping to build the Colorado Midland Railway. He remember...
Thumbnail for 'Interview with Ruth (McQueen) Smith and Isabella M. Cunningham'
Format:
Voice Recording
Ruth Smith and Isabella Cunningham, former reporters for The Daily Sentinel, recall their careers at the newspaper during the 1920’s through 1940’s. Cunningham talks about covering railroad news and events, including the institution of a sixteen-hour-day law for workers. They remember two young children that were killed when playing with dynamite in Fruitvale. They describe the annual Christmas party for needy children that was put on each year...
Thumbnail for 'First Interview with William Charles
Format:
Voice Recording
Bill Rump talks about his father Charlie Rump and his roll in developing the Redlands in Mesa County, Colorado as a member of the Redlands Company and the Redlands Water and Power Company. He recounts the efforts of those companies in creating orchards and other agricultural enterprises on the Redlands. He speaks about the Redlands School, roads, sports, youth activities, and other aspects of life on the Redlands and in Grand Junction. He remembers...
Thumbnail for 'Interview with Alexander R.
Format:
Voice Recording
Alex Bauer talks extensively about this history of his family, part of the German community of Morganthau in Russia. He recounts their immigration to the United States in the years before the Russian Revolution. He remembers his dad’s career as a machinist for Missouri Pacific Railroad and then the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. He also recounts his own career as a machinist. He speaks about his parrallel career as the shop steward International...