Organizations
Collection for organization entities.
Pages
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- Uintah Railway (Colorado and Utah)
- A railway line the Gilson Manufacturing Company created that ran from Crevasse, Colorado (later known as Mack, Colorado) to Black Dragon in order to mine natural asphalt from the Black Dragon uintaite vein. The railway was headquartered in Mack, Colorado. It’s final destination and turning point was Watson, Utah. It’s main mission was to haul gilsonite, but it also included one passenger car. According to Mesa County History Project interviewee Harry Sylvester Godby, the railroad served as the postal service for the route, delivering to mailboxes along the way. A passenger could board the train by waiting at one of the mailboxes until the train arrived. The Uintah also ran a stage line from Watson to Vernal. The railroad was directed by general manager M.W. Cooley, known as Captain Cooley. He resided in Mack and lived with his wife in the Mack Hotel. He was replaced by Major Hood. During the Depression, the company placed most of its workers on half-time, rather than firing them. When the Gilson Asphaltum Company, owner of the Uintah, found it was cheaper to truck gilsonite than it was to transport it by rail, it spelled the end of the Uintah. It ceased operations in 1939.
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- Uintah Stage Line (Mesa County, Colorado)
- A stage line, apparently not affiliated with the Uintah Railway. According to Agnes and Jerome Kiefer, who grew up in Mack, the line was in operation when they were children in the 1910's or 1920's. In 1940, Paul Elden Henry drove the stage route from Mack to Grand Junction. According to Henry, the stage coach was actually a combination bus and truck. It delivered, goods, mail, and people.
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- Union High School District (Mesa County, Colorado)
- This school district formed at the consolidation of the Rhone, Star, Longfellow, Hunter, Loma, and Fruita districts in 1904. It was eventually absorbed into Mesa County School District 51.
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- Union Mines Development Corporation (United States)
- A subsidiary of Union Carbide begun for the research and development of uranium in coordination with the Manhattan Project in the 1940's.
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- Union Oil Company (California)
- An oil company that held 18,000 acres of oil shale near De Beque, Colorado as of 1920. However, they ignored it in favor of a liquid oil strike in California. Union Oil became Unocal, and Unocal in turn was bought by Chevron and ceased independent operations.
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- Union Pacific Railroad
- The Union Pacific Railroad (UP) is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana.
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- United Fruit Growers Association (Mesa County, Colorado)
- An organization of fruit growers founded around 1920 by George W. Bowman, a Palisade resident, fruit farmer and banker. H.C. Huber, the Palisade postmaster, Albert Phillips, and Arthur Merle Echternach (secretary/treasurer) were also charter members. It was a strictly grower-run organization formed as an alternative to the Grand Junction Fruit Growers Association, which was a stock-based company and not a true cooperative. It was an early cooperative set-up in response to the passage of the Colorado Cooperative Marketing Law (https://aes.colostate.edu/wcrc/orchard-mesa/about/history/). According to Ernie Mauer, who worked as a shipping clerk for the group, George Bowman’s Palisades National Bank financed the organization in its first year, then the Denver National Bank backed the group, before the group switched again to the Bank of Coops in Wichita, Kansas. The cooperative held onto the profits of local growers for three years, used the money as operating expenses, and then returned the money to local growers as a dividend. The dividend payment was anywhere from $100 to $1000 a year, depending on how much fruit the farmer shipped. When it began, the UFGA shipped all orders via refrigerated rail cars. Smaller shipments were sent by express mail and parcel post. H.G. Crissey, the Manager, would send out a price list each week. According to Mauer, a large truck worked ten hours a day hauling fruit to the depot and post office, because orders were so large. Crissy and Merle Echternach led the coop through a time of great profitability and expansion. They were succeeded in leadership by Carl Hoisington. Wholesale buyers of the UFGA’s fruit included Amato Fruit and Myer Dawson. The UFGA absorbed other fruit grower cooperatives, such as the Western Colorado Producers Cooperative. Beginning in 1937, Fred Powell managed the organization after coming from the Paonia Fruit Growers Association. According to peach grower and Palisade resident Marion Echternach, the United belonged to a larger cooperative called the Federated. This arrangement was profitable to the farmers, but the Federated went under. The United then contracted with the Blue Goose, a different fruit sales outfit. The farmers did not do well and so the United hired its own salesperson, a practice they maintained at least until 1982. Although the heyday of fruit growing in Palisade ended before 1970, by 1981 the UFGA marketed, packed, and shipped fruit produced by up to 60 growers in Palisade. Crops included, peaches, cherries, and apricots. They maintained a station in Clifton, which had been originally established by Mountain Lion Fruit, until 1979 when it was no longer profitable.