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Chet Enstrom, producer of the locally famed Enstrom’s Toffee, talks about his life in the candy and ice cream business, his career in the Colorado State Senate, his volunteerism, and his impressions of Grand Junction, Colorado, his longtime home. 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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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...
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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...
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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...
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Edward Martin talks about the history of Martin Mortuary, where he was owner and mortician, and about funeral customs. He also discusses the history of Grand Junction and its economic growth, and his involvement and leadership in several local and national organizations. 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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A photograph of Edward Martin, owner of Martin Mortuary, with his immediate family. Pictured from left to right are Paul Martin (age 19), Rex Martin (16), Helen Martin (42), David Martin (14), and Edward Alexander Martin (47). The photograph was taken around 1949. The caption on the back of the photograph reads "Just Those Martins." The photograph was shared with Mesa County Libraries by Martin Mortuary, who consented to have the documents published...
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Earl Laycock talks about working in the Laycock Motor Company in Delta and Grand Junction, Colorado from 1918 to 1970. He remembers the Great Depression, bank failures, World War II, and the effect on automobile sales. He recalls the various makes and models of cars that Laycock Motors sold over the years. He talks about his birth in a log cabin in Ohio, on the Kentucky border, in 1895. He remembers his family and other tobacco farmers that organized...
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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...
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Grace Wade talks about her childhood growing up in Cripple Creek, Colorado. She goes into detail explaining the layout of the town, the street car system, the red light district, her school, and her home. She mentions her studious piano practice that led to her advanced playing ability, her yearly trips to Texas and Denver to see her family, and her family’s tradition of going to University of Texas. She describes her teaching career in Cripple...
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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,...
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Oscar Jaynes discusses childhood memories of Clifton, Colorado, including life on his family’s homestead, a time he climbed inside a giant tire and rolled down a desert hill, and a boxing match at school with future Colorado Supreme Court justice Jim Groves. He then relates tales of traveling the country on freight cars trying to find work during the Great Depression. Oscar also talks a great deal about the fruit business, specifically the peach...
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Dave Fishell, Karl Johnson, and James Carter discuss the history of law enforcement in Mesa County in a panel discussion sponsored by the Mesa County Historical Society. 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.
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Helen Johnson talks about helping teach a WPA-funded dance class during the Great Depression. She speaks about other government programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, and how they helped the people of Mesa County, Colorado during the Great Depression. She describes working for Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles to manufacture airplanes during World War II, where she became the lead in her section. She talks about her brief career teaching...
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In a two-part interview carried out over two days, Howard Shults talks about his experiences as a rancher and auctioneer on Colorado’s Western Slope. In part one, he talks about the arrival of his parents in Mesa County in 1903, their teaching careers at Pear Park and in Fruita, and his father’s move to a career as an auctioneer. He speaks about his childhood in Grand Junction and Collbran, his graduation from Grand Junction High School in 1923,...
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In this interview with Agnes Wright, early Mesa County resident, she discusses growing up in Grand Junction, Colorado and working with her family at the Colorado Telephone Company. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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In a recording of unknown date, Al Look speaks to fellow Grand Junction Lions Club members about Doctor E.H. Munro, a Lions Club founding member and local physician. He also reads a speech written by Munro about the history of the Lions Club. 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. *An incomplete recording of this speech...
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In the sixth, seventh and eighth 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. In the sixth recording, he talks about the people of the Daily Sentinel and some events that took place in Grand Junction during that time. During the seventh recording, he remembers a humorous, nonsense article written...
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Edwin “Ted” Winterburn talks about the many Grand Junction, Colorado buildings built by his father, Samuel E. Winterburn, including the Majestic Theater (now the Mesa Theater). He discusses growing up in Grand Junction and working as an electrician and car mechanic. He speaks about moving around the country a great deal and working various electrician jobs at the start of World War ll, then returning to the Grand Valley area to retire in the...
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Inez Prinster discusses the history of Grand Junction, Colorado buildings, businesses and people in a presentation for the Mesa County Historical Society. 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. *Photograph from the 1947 Mesa College annual.
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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.