Archive Search Results

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...

Marguerite Beede talks about moving with her husband and children to Loma, Colorado as part of a resettlement program during the Dust Bowl. She reminisces about teaching at the Loma School for over 20 years. She describes the establishment of the Loma Community Hall and its vital place in the community. She remembers some of the town’s locals. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries...

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 Wayne Aspinall: Scholar,...

Ruth Goss talks about her early days in Fruita and Loma, Colorado, and about life on a farm. She remembers teaching at the Valley View School and Loma School for several years. She speaks about her husband’s job as a ditch rider on the Grand Valley Canal and the Independent Ranchman’s Ditch. She talks about dances that took place at the Loma Community Hall. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of...

In a lecture and panel discussion at the Palisade’s Taylor Elementary School, Evelyn Kyle speaks about the history of the Mesa County Oral History Project and its invaluable role in collecting local stories. An interview panel of Evelyn Kyle, Paula Buttolph, Mary Faye Hampton, and Luella Morgan speak about their lives, the lives of women in the area, and Western Slope history. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County...

Early day teachers and employees of Mesa County, including Winifred Bull and Basil T. Knight, talk about the history of education in the area during 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.

Loudene Humeston talks about her teaching career in the Collbran School, and about the fire that took the top floor off of the original building. She also discusses town dances, teaching Sunday school at the Collbran Congregational Church, the history of town buildings, and aspects of Plateau Valley history. This interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado....

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...

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,...

Debrah Mahoney talks about the arrival of her grandfather in what would soon become Mesa County, Colorado, early in 1881. She recounts the accomplishments of her uncle John S. Gordon, who built Gordon’s Ferry over the Colorado River at the confluence in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1883, allowing passage over the river, and who also built Gordon’s Toll Road, which went from the ferry up to the sawmills of Pinon Mesa. She speaks about her father...