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Voice Recording
Jean Page discusses the story of Ed Scott, a Mesa County, Colorado pioneer and longtime employee and manager of the Red Trunk clothing store. She also talks about other businesses and people in Grand Junction. 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.
Format:
Compound
Dorothy Evans discusses growing up in Collbran, Colorado and receiving her business degree from the Hoel-Ross Business College in Grand Junction. She describes the social life in Grand Junction in and around Main Street, and recalls details about the prominent members of Mesa County, railroad workers, local business owners, and characters who lived and worked in the area. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
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...
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Voice Recording
In a general meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society, Armand de Beque describes the history of oil shale development in De Beque and the Piceance Basin, Colorado. He offers three stories for how it was discovered that oil shale can burn. He describes the founding of the Shale Oil Syndicate, an organization founded by his father, Dr. W.A.E. de Beque, William R. Warren, George Newton, and William Dinkel. He explains the lengthy process the Shale...
Format:
Voice Recording
Paul Bowers, then the airport manager of Walker Field (now known as the Grand Junction Regional Airport), talks about new airport facilities, their anticipated effect on businesses along Horizon Drive and North Avenue, and answers questions from the North Avenue Association. 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
Ray Boggs talks about his family’s move to Colorado and about attending the University of Colorado at Boulder. He remembers playing on a baseball team for the Midwest Oil Company and briefly as a professional pitcher for the Boston Braves. He describes pitching methods. He recalls working for the International Harvester company, a farm implement dealer, and how the company brought him to Grand Junction, where he became the manager of the store there...
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Voice Recording
Grace and Ralph Inskeep talk about coming to Mack, Colorado with Grace’s family in 1920. They speak about Ralph’s job working for the Bureau of Reclamation at Camp 7 and his subsequent job as a trackman for the Uintah Railway. They discuss the people and businesses of Loma and Mack, and living in the old Sunset School building. Ralph talks about working at Mesa College as a maintenance man. They speak about attending the Church of the Brethren...
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Voice Recording
Stephen Johnson talks about his education and background as a horticulturalist, and opening Johnson’s House of Flowers in Montrose, Colorado in 1919. He speaks about moving to Grand Junction, where he opened a florist business of the same name in 1937. He describes his love of practical jokes, shopping with his sons for school clothes on Main Street, and the different businesses there. He talks about his son Bob Johnson, his friendship with Al Look...
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Event
On May 2, 1982, Exxon announced that it was pulling out of its 60% share in the Colony Shale Oil Project near Parachute, Colorado due to the rapidly declining price of oil and the high expenses of producing synthetic oil from shale. The effects on the local economy were immediate and devastating, causing businesses to fold, real estate values to plummet, and leading to layoffs of 2,200 Exxon workers. In the years between 1983 and 1985, nearly 24,000...
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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...
Format:
Compound
Penelope Eberhart talks about her father Harry Brown’s introduction to oil shale while on a family vacation in Denver in the 1920’s, his subsequent move to the De Beque area on the Western Slope, and his early business venture in oil shale with the Index Oil Shale Company. She speaks about the mining and milling process for shale, and about a biproduct of the milling process marketed as plant fertilizer called Index Soil Vitalizer. She talks about...
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Voice Recording
Bob McCray, who owned the Diamond Saddle Shop in Mesa County, Colorado, speaks about his introduction to the saddlemaking business, and his employment in the Visalia Saddle Company near Yosemite National Park. He talks about saddle styles, saddlemaking techniques, spurs, chaps, the history of saddlery, and the state of saddlemaking both locally and nationally. He remembers his first exposure to horses as a boy in Missouri, and a brief tenure as a...
Format:
Voice Recording
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.
Format:
Voice Recording
Frank Simonetti Jr. talks about the arrival of his Italian immigrant parents in Grand Junction, Colorado, about his school days at the Whitman and St. Joseph’s School, and about the history of the downtown area. He speaks about working for the Citizens Finance Company for many years and about Melvin “Pappy” Due, a founding member and longtime president of the company. He describes what it was like to work for a financing and insurance company...
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Compound
Glenn McFall discusses downtown businesses and business owners in Grand Junction, Colorado, as well as the shoe store he worked at for nine years, McConnell-Lowes. Glenn also talks about the involvement of the Ku Klux Klan in the Grand Valley area, the Mesa County Pest House and Smallpox outbreaks, the social scene and where people went to go dancing, the Mesa County Fair, horse racing and gambling, bailing rowdy cowboys out of the local jail, Eddie...
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Voice Recording
Wyatt Wood describes his time as the manager of the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce and talks about the people he met there, including John Otto, who at one time was allowed to keep a desk in the Chamber office. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
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...
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Voice Recording
Sterling Smith, executive officer of the C.D. Smith Drug Company, talks about the childhood and life of his father, C.D. Smith, who founded the company. He describes his father’s success and the growth of his business into one of the first drugstore chains in Colorado. He discusses diversification of the business as it became involved with wholesale candy sales, chemical manufacture, and real estate. He talks about activities of C.D. Smith and the...
Format:
Compound
Edith Strain talks about her childhood in Iowa and about coming to Clifton, Colorado with her family to farm in 1909. She recounts Clifton’s agricultural past and the history of its town center, especially in regard to schools, churches, and businesses. She speaks about her husband Robert Strain and his work as a farmer, mechanic, and service station owner. She remembers owning a restaurant next door to his service station in Clifton. She talks...
Format:
Compound
Edward Schultz talks about his childhood in a German settlement in Russia and the family’s subsequent flight from the country in the face of persecution against Germans. He remembers immigrant and family life in a German community in Kansas, where they settled after immigrating to the United States. He discusses his brief career as a machinist for the railroad in Kansas. He recalls leaving home at sixteen and meeting his future wife in Mack, Colorado,...