Events

: Christo's Rifle Gap Curtain exhibition; In August 1972, the artist Christo and his wife Jean-Claude installed an orange curtain in the Rifle Gap valley. The curtain tore shortly after installation and had to be removed.

: City of Grand Junction Diamond Jubilee; Festivities held in 1957 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Grand Junction’s founding. It was organized by the Grand Junction Festival Company. Different events were held as part of the commemoration. In his oral history interview, radio broadcaster Robert “Bob” Collins recalls that he and three other men, including Paul Strout and Hank Vogt, dressed up like Doc Holiday and staged gunfights on Main Street against Audrey Thrailkill, Bill Jarvis, Nate Liff and others. According to John Goulet, the gun fights happened every day at Noon at 5th and Main Streets. The festivities included a parade with marching bands and a pageant in Lincoln Park. One of the marching bands was composed of US Marine paratroopers. The Diamond Jubilee also apparently hosted “movie people,” including George Murphy, Doris Tucker, and Lillian Gish.

: Collbran Project - US Bureau of Reclamation; A project initiated with a request for water development plans from the US Bureau of Reclamation by a committee of Mesa County farmers and interested residents, headed by Fred Joseph Simpson, who wanted to bring drinking water to rural residents living outside the Grand Valley’s towns and cities. According to Simpson, the committee’s chairman, the committee was a forerunner of the Ute Water Conservancy District. The Bureau responded with initial plans, given to the committee around 1944, for the development of a water supply from Plateau Creek. According to the Bureau of Reclamation’s page for the Collbran Project, construction on Vega Dam began in 1957 and all aspects of the water storage project, which included the refurbishing of older reservoirs and dams, were completed by 1962. In addition to drinking water, the project also delivers irrigation water to 21,000 acres and provides electricity via two power plants.

: Colorado Stampede rodeo, Grand Junction, Colorado; An annual, professional rodeo that was held in Grand Junction, Colorado for several years. It was begun by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and taken over by the Mesa County Sheriff Posse in 1957. The rodeos were held on North Avenue at the location of a motor speedway (later the Kmart location at 2809 North Avenue), at the fairgrounds in Lincoln Park, and later at Uranium Downs, the Mesa County Fairgrounds location in Orchard Mesa. It was considered one of the top rodeos in the state.

: Colorado West Marching Band Competition; A long-running high school marching band competition of mostly Western Slope bands held annually in Grand Junction, Colorado. It was preceded by the Western Slope Marching Band Competition, and first organized by Wyatt Wood of the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce. Bands marched in a parade on Main Street, and then compete in a field competition at Lincoln Park.

: Columbine Mine Massacre; On November 21, 1927 in Serene, Colorado, members of the Colorado Rangers fired into a crowd of hundreds of striking miners at the Columbine Mine. Six were killed and about 20 wounded.

: Cowpuncher's Reunion in Fruita; An annual event held at Fruita, Colorado's first fairgrounds on Aspen Avenue, in the early part of the Twentieth century. It began in 1914 and continued through the 1950's, when it became the Hunter's Roundup, a celebration to begin hunting season. By the 1970's, the celebration had morphed again, becoming the Fruita Fall Fest. The Fruita Fall Fest continues today. *Information for this description was taken from the Fruita Chamber of Commerce, and from the Daily Sentinel article "'Always a big deal'" Fruita Fall Festival marks 100 years of history," September 25, 2014.

: Cripple Creek Fires of 1896; In 1896, two fires separated by 96 hours burned much of the town down. According to oral history interviewee Grace Wade, the first fire was supposedly caused by an argument between a miner and his 'lady friend'. A lamp was kicked over and it set fire to her building where a heavy wind blew it all over town. Buildings were later rebuilt with brick to prevent another fire.

: Death of last Grizzly Bear in Mesa County; According to former game warden John Duncan Hart, the last grizzly bear in Mesa County was shot by a man named Sills on the Uncompahgre sometime around 1912. The bear was known as Big-foot Mary. A Daily Sentinel article from October 22, 1925 reports the incident differently. A hunter named Ed Gill shot Big Foot Mary in October of 1925, and did so in the Dominguez area. According to the Sentinel article, Mary weighed 905 pounds and had a footprint of 18 inches. She was pursued by Gill and his companions for three days until she was, reportedly, shot at close range. For 25 years, cattle ranchers and aligned government interests had tried to kill her because of her attacks on cattle, but she had proved elusive prior to her death.

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