Organizations

: Little Book Cliff Railway (Colorado); A railroad track established by William Thomas Carpenter to transport the coal from the Book Cliff Coal Mine from 1889-1925. It started at the yard depot, located just west of Rice Street on Main Street in Grand Junction, Colorado. It then proceeded up 1st Street north toward First Fruitridge, turning east to go down Bookcliff Avenue and crossing the big ditch just before Patterson, where it headed into the desert and toward the Bookcliffs and the town of Carpenter. Passengers often took the railroad from Grand Junction to Carpenter for picnics.

: Loma Canning and Preserving (Loma, Colorado); A canning factory that was established in 1911 to process anticipated harvests in Loma, Colorado. But the factory closed down a few years later not having reached its full capacity.

: Loma Church of God (Loma, Colorado); According to Grace and Ralph Inskeep, it was a church presided over by pastor Alvin Ricks in the early Twentieth century. Ralph Inskeep was appointed superintendent of the church by the state church’s overseer. Ricks had a parsonage built east of the church. Church attendance apparently declined when some members started working on Sundays.

: Loma Community Church (Loma, Colorado); The Loma Community Church was organized as the First Presbyterian Church in 1909. Reverend George F. McCleve, who had held services at the Loma School prior to the church's organization, served as the first minister. The congregation built a church in 1909-1910 (The Church That Stayed by Virginia Donoho). According to oral history interviewee and Loma resident Hazel W. (Durham) Murphy, the Loma Presbyterian church was built and furnished with money from the Reed Ranch Company, owned by Verner Z. Reed. The church had about fifty members around the time that Murphy joined, in 1918. Mr. Weir was the minister. According to Leola Wiswell, a member of the church from 1941, some families traveled from the New Liberty area to attend the church. The church held a banquet for the local high school graduates every spring. During the 1950's, Reverend Howard Manning was the presiding pastor. In later years, the church had problems getting people to serve as pastor. The church dropped from forty members in 1971 to nine in 1978. A man named Gerry Niehues battled to keep the church open. With the arrival of pastor Gardner in 1979, the congregation grew again. According to Gertrude Rader, the church was renamed the Loma Community Church at that time, coinciding with the congregants' purchase of the building from the Western Slope Presbytery. The church still operates under the same name.

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