Events
Collection of event entities.
Pages
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- Mesa County country school field day
- In the early Twentieth century, country schools from Mesa County gathered in Lincoln Park to hold a field day, with graduation ceremonies following in the Lincoln Park Barn. According to oral history interviewee Bertha Schlegel, attendees included students from schools in Pomona, Plateau Valley, Molina, Collbran, Loma, Mack, the Redlands, Clifton, Orchard Mesa, Escalante and Glade Park. Schlegel attended her field days in the 1920's.
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- Midland Road Race
- An annual bicycle race sponsored by the Colorado Midland Railroad. It ran from Basalt to Glenwood Springs.
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- Midsummer Roundup (Salida, Colorado)
- The Midsummer Roundup was the annual rodeo held in Salida, Colorado, back in the 1920s and 30s.
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- Murder of Charles Sieber by Joe Harris
- The following description of the event comes from author Ruth G. Moss: “The Sieber Cattle Company was formed in 1897, just five years before his death. About this time, Joe Harris had benn hired by the firm. He and Sieber did not get along very well to say the least, so Harris quit in a few months. From then on, both Sieber and Harris accused each other of branding each other’s cattle. Harris had his headquarters at Westwater, Utah. The day of the fatal shooting found Harris riding across Siebers land near his summer camp 35 miles southwest of Grand Junction. He ran across Sieber. The two immediately started up their longstanding argument. Stories vary on what happened from then on, but Harris claimed he shot after Sieber obtained a gun and charged him. Harris had pulled his gun first, though. All of Sieber’s 11 children, except one married daughter, were at the camp during the shooting. The body was taken to Grand Junction for very elaborate burial services. When the case came up for trial the courtroom was packed and the street outside jammed with people hoping to get a glimpse of what was going on inside from the shouts of the attorneys. Trial reporting style, like all other newspaper writing, differed very much in 1902 from the concise stories now days. Nearly all Daily Sentinel stories on the trial led off telling how packed the courtroom was, who was present, what they wore, and their appearance and attitude. The fourth and fifth paragraph usually began the court proceedings. When the jury finally reached its verdict the headlines read “Harris Trial Verdict Reached.” In the fourth paragraph, readers learned what the verdict was, voluntary manslaughter. Harris went to jail and dropped out of the news for a few years. Then around 1908, a Sieber employee, seeking revenge for his boss’s murder, shot Harris at his ranch at Westwater. A few years later, in 1910, the Sieber Cattle Company closed, ending an epoch in Western Colorado cattle raising” (Mesa County Historical Society newsletter, May-June 1983).
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- Murder of Maggie Herrick by Henry Herrick
- Henry and his wife Maggie Herrick were settlers in the Kannah Creek, Colorado area. In 1883, she left him during a domestic squabble, and went to her parents’ house in Albuquerque. She later returned, only to find Henry in a carriage with a woman named Margaret Thompson, whom Henry had employed as a housekeeper. Maggie shot and killed Margaret. Maggie had been represented by Robert Cobb, who later represented her husband, and who also worked as the probate judge in charge of administering the estate. Cobb secured Maggie's release, and accompanied by Sheriff Martin Florida, she went to retrieve livestock that belonged to her. She rode on ahead of the sheriff, and was shot and killed by Henry. Herrick was captured, but then escaped from jail and was never found.
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- Murders committed by John Brown
- Murders committed by Mesa County resident John Brown in the Sinbad Valley area in the early 20th Century.
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- National Veterans Creative Arts Festival
- An arts competition open to all United States Veterans who were honorably discharged and are using V.A. health care. The first competition in Grand Junction, Colorado was held in November 1997 and contained five divisions: visual arts, creative writing, music, singing and dancing, and performance. First prize winners advance to the national competition, which holds week long festivities. The festival continues to this day.