Organizations
Collection for organization entities.
Pages
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- 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).
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- Mesa County Public Health
- Mesa County Public Health provides public and environmental health services to the people of Mesa County.
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- 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.
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- 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
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- Mesa County Spellbinders (Mesa County, Colorado)
- An organization that uses volunteers to tell stories to children in the classroom.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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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- Mesa Fellowship United Methodist Church (Mesa, Colorado)
- Established in the town of Mesa, Colorado in 1900. It served parishioners from several Christian denominations, but according to oral history interviewee Anna Clark, was founded a Methodist Church because one of the congregants, presumably a Methodist, donated large amounts of money. Its founding name was the Alice Cornell Memorial Methodist Church.
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- Mesa Flour Mills (Grand Junction, Colorado)
- A large business in the early Twentieth century. It milled wheat that farmers produced locally. According to oral history interviewee John Brach, whose family farmed wheat near Loma, it operated during the same time period as the rival Juanita Flour Mill. It purchased wheat at the market rate, milled it, and sold back flour at the market rate. According to oral history interviewee Gladys Gross, it was purchased by Colorado Milling and Elevator Company, who gradually phased out business, presumably as farmers planted less wheat around the valley. The mill itself was located somewhere downtown… probably near South Avenue.
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- Mesa School District 9 (Town of Mesa, Mesa County, Colorado)
- An early school district that preceded the consolidation of districts and the formation of Plateau Valley School District 50 and Mesa County Valley School District 51. It administered the Mesa School.