Organizations

: Rifle Telegram Newspaper (Rifle, Colorado); The Telegram was established in Rifle, Colorado, in 1903. After moving to another location and merging with the Reveille Newspaper in 1913, the Telegram became the Rifle Telegram. J.H. and Susie Barley took over in 1933. Susie wrote a column, then became the publisher when World War II began. In 1960, the paper was bought by William Dunaway. He also owned the Aspen Times and Glenwood Sage papers. He changed the newspaper’s format to the tabloid format we see today. Tom Griffith purchased the Rifle Telegram in the 1990s but soon filed bankruptcy. The competing paper, West Valley Citizen, took over and consolidated to create the Citizen Telegram. In 1998, Morris Communications bought the newspaper, and in November of 2000 sold it to Swift Newspapers.

: Right and Wrong (Grand Junction, Colorado); A local activist organization formed in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. RAW was a driving force in the protest movement arose in the wake of Floyd’s death, and is still active in the community. With Black Citizens and Friends, they put on a Juneteenth celebration. It was founded in 2020 by Anthony “Tony” Clark and Jay Bishop, two former football players from Colorado Mesa University. According to oral history interviewee Shannon Robinson, Bishop and Clark had experienced and witnessed discrimination on the university campus, including retaliation against an African-American athlete who knelt in protest during the playing of the national anthem. Bishop, Clark, Robinson and others met beneath a tree in a city park and formed the organization. They organized a June 3rd march on city hall during a city council meeting that took many on the council by surprise due to the number of marchers. During the meeting, Bishop read a list of demands on behalf of the community that included improvements in education, the creation of a community oversight committee, partnership with local police to end harassment, and the removal of Walter Walker’s name from the CMU soccer field. The group continued to attend city council meetings for a period of time.

: Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus; A traveling company labeled as "The Greatest Show on Earth". It started in 1919 when Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus owned by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. After 146 years of shows, the circus ended in 2017.

: Rio Grande Southern Railroad (Colo.); A narrow gauge railroad serving Southwestern Colorado from 1891 to 1951. It included the Galloping Goose rail service, developed by the Rio Grande Southern Railroad in the 1930’s. The Galloping Goose consisted of railcars crafted from automobiles and ran them as trains on narrow gauge track to different towns in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. The train cars were built in Ridgway, Colorado. The train held the contract for the mail until the early 1950’s, and then became a tourist train.

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