Organizations

Collection for organization entities.

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Mesa County Mental Health Association
An organization in Mesa County that provided mental health education and guidance. It helped found the Mental Health Center, which provided actual treatment for patients.
Mesa County Oral History Project
The Mesa County Oral History Project was begun as a joint project of the Museums of Western Colorado and Mesa County Libraries in 1975. At that time, pioneers and the children of pioneers were donating items to the museum. Each of them had a story to tell, and Anne Saunders, Curator of Collections, realized the importance of those stories. She a secured a grant and the Oral History Project was born. The Oral History Project collected tape-recorded interviews with early residents of Mesa County and surrounding areas, and interviews with the descendants of early residents. The Central Branch of the Library housed the duplicate audiocassettes, while the Museum stored the master tapes. The Mesa County Historical Society also contributed significantly to the Oral History Project by collaborating with the library and museum to select interviewees, and by providing interviewers and other volunteers. Today, the Museums of Western Colorado continue to record oral histories with residents who have important knowledge of the area’s history. Mesa County Libraries (MCL) no longer keeps duplicate copies of tapes. But MCL is now working with the Museums of Western Colorado to digitize interviews from the Oral History Program, and to provide online access to the interviews through the MCL catalog. The original audiocassettes, interview transcripts, and other source material for the Mesa County Oral History Project are housed at the Museum.
Mesa County Peach Administrative Board (Mesa County, Colorado)
A Mesa County peach industry committee based primarily in Palisade, Colorado. In 1939, peach grower Marion George Bowman and other interested parties went to Denver to lobby the state legislature to allow the creation of a board of control, which would help ensure appropriate pricing for fruit and fair payment for growers. The Colorado State Legislature passed a law authorizing the creation of such agricultural boards of control, and the Mesa County Peach Administrative Board was formed. According to Bowman, the board was comprised of elected officials. The first board’s members included: Marion George Bowman, R.M. Quinn, Ira Cramer, L.A. Thoothaker, Dr. J.E. Ford, Dale Evans, Wayne Aspinall, Silmon Smith, Harold Motz, and Fred Powell. The board was headquartered in Grand Junction for one year and then moved to Palisade. The Board established regulations on the size and grade of peaches, worked with the United Fruit Growers Cooperative, worked to keep shipping costs down, marketed, looked for new peach markets by sending out representatives, conducted statistical analysis of competing peach growing regions, recommended wages for agricultural workers, and posted suggested prices (not to be confused with price-fixing). They also maintained weigh stations. Oscar Winfield Jaynes Jr. was a member. Ben King served as the director of markets. Walter Walker served as a member at one point.
Mesa County Planning Department
An organization responsible for planning roads, land use, and infrastructural development in the county. According to Edith Louise (Strain) Patton, her father Robert Louis Strain was one of the department’s original members (then called the Mesa County Planning Commission). Among other accomplishments, the department numbered the county’s streets, with streets running north and south given numbered names that reflected their distance from the Utah state line (e.g. 28 Road and 32 Road), and east and west going streets given lettered names (e.g. B Road and H Road).
Mesa County Public Health
Mesa County Public Health provides public and environmental health services to the people of Mesa County.
Mesa County Public Welfare
Mesa County Sheriff Posse (Mesa County, Colorado)
A non-profit organization begun in June 1956 by Jim Fox, Ralph Tallerico, Louis Pavetti and Virgil Van Dyke. There were 15-20 people present at the Posse's first meeting. Some of its first members included: Fox, Tallerico, Pavetti, Van Dyke, Dail Broom, Dan Halverson, Less Halverson, Alvin Roper, Glen Berry, Bill Reddick, W.W. Hall, Jack Lucas, Rexal Rich, Dell Wonser, Ed Lamb, Jack Rosenquist, and Buck Sutherland. The original purpose of the Posse was to help the Mesa County Sheriff's Office with rescue work, to aid the young, and to promote rodeos and horsemanship in Mesa County. They organized the annual Colorado Stampede, a local professional rodeo. The Posse is still an active organization.
Mesa County Sheriff's Office (Mesa County, Colorado)
Prior to the establishment of Mesa County, Sheriff Bowman of Gunnison County patrolled the wide expanse of the county. When Mesa County was established in 1883, the Governor of Colorado appointed Martin Florida as the first sheriff. Later that year, William Innes was elected sheriff along with other Mesa County office holders. Charles Lumley, “one of the most respected sheriffs ever to hold office in Mesa County,” served from the late 1920’s until his death in 1941, for a toal of seven terms (Mesa County Historical Society newsletter, May-June 1983). Involved in mediating range and farming activities, this branch of law enforcement serves to keep the peace. *Some information taken from http://sheriff.mesacounty.us/aboutus/so-office-history.aspx
Mesa County Spellbinders (Mesa County, Colorado)
An organization that uses volunteers to tell stories to children in the classroom.
Mesa County Teachers Federal Credit Union (Grand Junction, Colorado)
A credit union organized as an extension of the school district for the benefit of teachers in the early Twentieth century. At its inception in 1936, it had 22 charter members, including Sara Kruh. It existed with the name Mesa County Teachers Federal Credit Union at least into the 1990's.
Mesa County Valley School District 51
The Mesa County Valley School District 51 was formed on November 27, 1950 from sixteen smaller school districts in Mesa County. These smaller districts, in turn, had formed as the result of prior consolidations. With the exception of De Beque and Plateau Valley, which formed their own school districts, every geographical area in the county became part of District 51. The District elected its first school board and appointed its first superintendent, I.K. Boltz, on January 29, 1951. The smaller school districts that consolidated to form District 51 included: Grand Junction District 1, Fruita District 2, Whitewater District 3, Purdy Mesa District 4, Rhone District 7, Pride District 11, Cameo District 15, Palisade District 19, Loma District 23, Hunter District 25, Star District 27, New Liberty District 37, Appleton District 39, Glade Park District 41, Mack District 44, and Central District 46. Prior to consolidation, every county in Colorado had a superintendent that oversaw the school districts within that county. Districts were labeled as 1st, 2nd, or 3rd class districts, a designation based on population size, and not on any judgement of quality. Grand Junction was 1st class; Palisade, Fruita, and Clifton were 2nd class; Hunter, Rhone, and Star were 3rd class. 1st class districts were run by their own superintendent and were not managed by the county superintendent. Every district had a three-member school board; board members served a three year term and were elected on a staggered schedule so that they didn’t all change in the same year. 1st class districts had two extra board members. The county superintendent was responsible for administering the teacher’s exam, as prepared by the state educational board, to any prospective educators. Even after consolidation, a county-level superintendent apparently continued to exist as its own position outside of District 51. Basil T. Knight served as the last such Mesa County Superintendent of Schools, a position that ended in 1967. According to interviews with Gertrude Rader and Leola Wiswell, the county’s first hot lunch program was established at Loma Elementary School in 1921. It began with teachers cooking soup at home, which was heated in the school’s old coal room. The coal room was cleaned and transformed into a kitchen by the PTA. The program expanded to the kitchen of the Loma Community Hall. Milk came from local farmers. In later years, the hot lunch program apparently expanded from Loma to the rest of what would become Mesa County School District 51. Under the direction of John Martin, the District 51 began a special education program in 1955. The program was staffed by Emma Samuels, Dorothy Tindall and Dorothy Sanderson. Teachers in the program worked from the Washington School, and were under the supervision of Tope principal Ruth Larson. To see if they qualified for special education, students were tested by a psychologist. If they did qualify, parents were given the choice of keeping their child in a “normal” classroom or moving them to a special education classroom. When the program grew too large for the Washington School, the special education department moved to the Whitman School, where it stayed until 1964. In 1964, the program moved to the Hawthorne School. The program later expanded to take older students in the secondary grades, both at the Career Center and elsewhere. The district also began specialized education for the children of migrant laborers in 1956. Although efforts had been made by Dorothy Tindall and others to reach out to migrant families, and to bring the children of migrant workers living in La Colonia to the Emerson School prior to 1956, the Palisade Migrant School was the district’s first official effort at migrant education. Children were brought into school from the migrant labor camp along the Colorado River, and provided with free breakfast and lunch. The school year ran from July to the beginning of the traditional school year. The school also worked with the Colorado State health department to provide public health and dentistry services to migrants. Following the winter of 1962, when fruit blossoms froze, the labor camp in Palisade largely disbanded. Local farmers brought in Native Americans from Arizona to work in beet fields and other agricultural endeavors, and the migrant camp was moved to Fruita. The migrant school relocated for a time to the gym of the old Loma School. The migrant school was also housed in Fruita Junior High School but did not get a good reception from the principal, who was opposed to teaching migrants in his school, or from certain staff members. *Some information for this article was taken from "In the Beginning... A History of the Districts and Schools that became Mesa County Valley School District 51" by Albert and Terry LaSalle.
Mesa Creamery (Town of Mesa, Colorado)
A creamery founded by physician Archie Craig in the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth century.

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