Compound
Showing
1 - 20
of 24
, query time: 0.02s
Format:
Compound
Bunk Weimer recalls settling on land at the current location of Colorado Mesa University as a child in 1903, where the boys slept in a cave and the rest of the family in tents before the land was leveled for farming. He talks about helping with the construction of the first Mesa County Fairgrounds (on the site of the present day Lincoln Park), including the Lincoln Park Barn. He discusses helping his father pour foundations for several prominent buildings...
Format:
Compound
Edna Brenton talks about her pioneering family near Steamboat Springs, Colorado and touches on the homesteading life, country schools, and childhood games. She also discusses farm life with her husband, contributions farmers made to keep roads plowed and open, medical care, and the growth of Steamboat Springs over time. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western...
Format:
Compound
Mabel Hart Johnson talks about life in Meeker, Colorado in the early 1900’s, Teddy Roosevelt’s mountain lion hunting trip in the area, and what the life of a woman was like in Meeker. She also discusses her battle with the illness St. Vitus’s Dance, using scrip during the Great Depression, homesteading near the White River, raising a family in Grand Junction, and bowling. Her husband Murl Hazen Johnson talks about working as a truck driver for...
Format:
Compound
Lorene Roice talks about her childhood growing up on a farm in Kansas, childhood chores, music, dances, dating, holiday celebrations, and her involvement in 4-H. She also discusses her life in Grand Junction, Colorado, her husband Joe Roice, and their cofounding of the Roice-Hurst Humane Society, Grand Junction’s first animal shelter. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and...
Format:
Compound
Mary Plaisted talks about early days in Mesa County, Colorado, her marriage to Thomas Pierce, a farmer in Loma, and the busy life of a homemaker on the farm. She discusses various locations and institutions around the Western Slope, including the Paradox Valley, the Cowpuncher’s Reunion, and the Little Book Cliff Railway. She speaks about her warm family life as a child in Kansas, and life in Western Colorado after her father’s death. She also...
Format:
Compound
Lebrado Serna discusses his family life and his multiple jobs working as a Master plumber in Durango, Colorado and elsewhere. He also touches on the social scene in the old red light district of Silverton, and on the Plumber’s Union. 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
Susie Mendicelli talks about the life of her Italian-American family in Grand Junction, Colorado, the Mendicelli Bakery, canning and preserving at home, and making sausage and head cheese. She also discusses other Italian-American people and businesses, the history of Grand Junction and the changes she saw in town, and the history of Pitkin Avenue. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...
Format:
Compound
Bertha Schlegel discusses growing up in Loma, Colorado and helping her family raise beets for Holly Sugar, and making sauerkraut, pickled apples, pickled watermelon and other ethnic food with her mother, who was a German immigrant from Russia. She also remembers her education and school activities throughout her childhood, including field days at the Fruita Central School and Grand Junction High School. She talks about obtaining a teaching degree,...
Format:
Compound
Rose and Morgan Goss discuss the early settlement of Grand Junction and Fruita, Colorado, and agricultural life in the Appleton area. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Compound
Howard Shults talks about life growing up in Collbran, Colorado in the early Twentieth century, including farming, local schools and his father’s teaching career in “trouble” schools, local people, and his juvenile hijinks. He also discusses breaking horses, “leaded horses” exposed to the pesticide lead arsenic, wild horses, raising and driving hogs from Collbran to De Beque, and winning the Ft. Logan Military Training School boxing championship....
Format:
Compound
Cordelia Files talks about the history of her family as early homesteaders in Mesa County, Colorado. She remembers life in Fruita in the early Twentieth century. She recalls working on a ranch near De Beque for her first job at the age of fifteen. She speaks about her life as a teacher instructing all eight grades in a one-room school house, about different episodes from her career in education (including the time a cat came to school), and about...
Format:
Compound
Albert William Karp talks about the incident that handicapped him as a young man and how it affected the rest of his life. He mentions his addiction and mental health issues. He describes his first guide dog and the process for getting one. Lastly, he explains how he came to be a volunteer for Alcoholics Anonymous and other notable charities. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries...
Format:
Compound
Former Grand Junction Fire Chief Frank Kreps describes living in a one-room log cabin on his parents’ Roan Creek homestead as a young boy in the 1910’s, the feeling of community among the scattered residents, and a sawmill that provided lumber to residents. He talks about his father’s career as a locomotive engineer for the Uintah Railway and the Denver & Rio Grande. He remembers having to split wood for all the sick families in Atchee during...
Format:
Compound
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...
Format:
Compound
Margaret Snook describes the voyage to the United States from her native Scotland in 1910, and life in the Van Houten mining camp near Raton, Colorado. She and her daughter Ida May (Snook) Waggoner talk about William T. and Clara P. Snook, and their establishment of a homestead in what became known as Snooks Bottom. Margaret Snook discusses life in Craig and Axel, Colorado, where she and her husband Guy Snook worked supplying homesteaders with various...
Format:
Compound
Joe, Mike and Ida Peep discuss their family’s Italian heritage, the history of their pioneer family in Fruita, and life as young people in Western Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Compound
Laura Foster talks about moving from Pennsylvania to Telluride, Colorado in 1890, with a description of their journey on foot with two burros over Ophir Pass, and about pioneer life near Telluride, including the time she helped her mother birth a baby in absence of any help (some or all of which may be a tall tale). She also gives an embellished story about her time as a mining camp and railroad cook, and gives what seems to be an inaccurate account...
Format:
Compound
In a three-part interview conducted over three days, Luisa Landini describes her childhood in Montale, Italy and her life after immigrating to the United States. In part one, she talks about life in Italy, working on a farm and in the fields, and her immigration to the United States via ship at the age of twenty-two. She talks about coming to America to marry Pete Landini and her homesickness for Italy when she arrived. She speaks about the family’s...
Format:
Compound
Early Fruitvale resident Velma E. Budin discusses the history of Fruitvale and Fruitvale High School, the extensive pioneering history of the Borschell family in the Grand Valley, the biographies of several prominent Fruitvale families, fruit farming, and early irrigation methods of the Grand Valley. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
*Photograph...
Format:
Compound
Bessie Jane Milholland talks about her childhood growing up on a ranch in Molina, Colorado and how her family earned a living selling butter and other dairy goods. She describes trips to Grand Junction in horse and buggy, trading and selling handmade goods, and her education at the rural Molina School. She talks about her eventual move to Grand Junction after marrying her husband, Danford Wheeler, their life there, and the tasks of a homemaker. She...
