Events

: Grand Valley Teacher's Convention; A convention that was held during the month of October in Grand Junction, Colorado during the early Twentieth century. It may have begun when the Colorado Education Association Teacher's Meeting was held in Grand Junction (the first of the statewide organization's to be held there). It was continued as a locally organized event in later years.

: Great Pueblo Flood of 1921; A flood that occurred when levees on the Arkansas River were breached after heavy rainfall. The flood began on June 3rd, and flood waters reached a height of 27.36 feet. Somewhere between 150 to 250 people died in the flooding, and much of the city was destroyed. 300 square miles were flooded, with hundreds of houses, business and cars demolished (“Anniversary of the Great Pueblo Flood of 1921” by James Rogers, Denver Public Library blog). Cordelia (Hamilton) Files, a Western Colorado resident who was a patient in Clark’s Mineral Wells Sanitorium in Pueblo at the time, recalls that all of the staff of the sanitorium and many of the patients evacuated, leaving those who couldn’t do so to fend for themselves. From their vantage point on the third floor, they could see people fleeing to escape the floodwaters, with not all of them succeeding. They saw all manner of things float by and could hear them run into the building during the night. The waters, according to Files, reached the level of the third-floor windows before finally starting to recede. She saw the flood waters reach the cupula of the Catholic Church across the street. The police and Red Cross placed her with a family in town. She stayed with them for three weeks before being able to go home. *Public domain photograph of the Great Pueblo Flood

: Great Train Robbery movie showing in Grand Junction, Colorado; Sometime after the release of the silent movie short The Great Train Robbery in 1903, it became the first motion picture shown in Grand Junction, Colorado [circa 1905-1910]. The movie was shown in a tent in an open area between White and Grand Avenue east of 7th Street. Sound effects were provided by a man standing outside the tent and firing blanks from a six-gun during the battle scenes.

: Head Lettuce Days (Buena Vista, Colorado); During the 1940s and 50s, Buena Vista, Colorado, celebrated the lettuce harvest with entertainments, food, and a rodeo.

: Juneteenth; An annual holiday and celebration that takes place on June 19th. On that date in 1865, African-American slaves in Texas found out that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior, and that the Civil War was over.

: Junior Fat Stock Show; A livestock event and competition for youth, put on by the Agricultural Committee of the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce, and the Mesa County chapters of 4-H and the Future Farmers of America (the Mesa County Junior Livestock Show, which is now part of the County Fair, may be the continuation of this event).

: Killing of E.T. Massey by Bill Lefare in 1903; The murder of E.T. Massey, cattle rancher, by William "Bill" Lefare on the Uncompahgre Plateau in 1903.

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