Mesa County Oral History Project

The Mesa County Oral History Project began as a joint project of the Museums of Western Colorado and Mesa County Libraries (MCL) in 1975. The Oral History Project collected tape-recorded interviews with pioneers of Mesa County and surrounding areas, and interviews with the children of pioneers. The Central Library housed the duplicate audio cassettes and provided patron access to the histories. The Museum stored the master tapes and kept files and transcripts related to the oral history collection. 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. Mesa County Libraries no longer partner with the Museum in housing duplicate copies of tapes. But the library now works with the Museum to digitize interviews from the Mesa County Oral History Project and to provide online access to the interviews through Pika, the library catalog. The Museum continues to house the original audio cassettes, interview transcripts, and other source material for the project. The Library and the Museums of Western Colorado still record oral histories with residents who have important knowledge of the area’s history. Please note that some interviews contain language that listeners or readers may consider offensive. Mesa County Libraries does not condone such language, but has included interviews in their entirety in the interest of preserving history.

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Fourth Interview with Craig B. Aupperle
Craig Aupperle discusses his knowledge of John Otto, his associations with Utes who passed through the Grand Valley in the early Twentieth century, and his life in trade and manual labor. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Fourth Interview with Dudley W. Mitchell
Dudley Mitchell discusses aspects of early Mesa County life, with an emphasis on the variety of jobs he worked for the railroad. He also discusses the change from locomotive steam engines to diesel engines, how trains were built, the way railroads advertised, and the changes railroads went through over the years. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
Fourth Interview with Emma (Berg) Nagel
Emma Nagel discusses her family’s dairy business in rural Mesa County, Colorado, the butter making process, storing and selling butter, and changes brought to the home-butter business after the establishment of a local creamery. She also talks about participating in Mesa County Fairs, family activities, homemaking with her mother, an icehouse her father constructed, home luncheon visits, Fruita events, people and history, and her father’s job as a ditch rider. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Fourth Interview with Everett H. Munro
Dr. Everett Munro discusses his service in the U.S. Army’s medical reserves during World War I, early vaccination campaigns in Grand Junction, life as a rural doctor doing house calls, and other aspects of early Mesa County history. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
Fourth Interview with Gertrude D. (Geiger) Rader
Gertrude Rader discusses her time spent teaching in Loma, Colorado in the early 1900s. She talks about the role of the sugar beet company as landowner and employer in the area. She includes details about the schools, businesses, and churches that existed in Loma, her involvement starting Mesa County’s first hot school lunch program, and her experiences attending an annual fish fry in Horsethief Canyon. Gertrude also shares memories about the many social clubs in the Grand Valley, the train coming through Loma, and the house she lived in for forty-four years. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Fourth Interview with Glenn W. McFall
Glenn W. McFall relates a tale of riding the rails during the Depression as a teenager and getting food and help from a prostitute in Salida, Colorado. He also talks in general about prostitution in Grand Junction and the American West. He discusses the Land's End Hill Climb auto race, prominent physicians and businessmen of early Grand Junction, the shoe trade, button shoes and women's fashion. He then talks about Chipeta's visits to the McConnell-Lowes shoe store during annual pilgrimages of Utes from the Uintah Reservation to Montrose, and about furnishings and service in early Twentieth century Colorado hotels. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Fourth Interview with Helen Lucille (Young) Johnson
Helen Johnson talks about helping teach a WPA-funded dance class during the Great Depression. She speaks about other government programs, such as the Civilian Conservation Corps, and how they helped the people of Mesa County, Colorado during the Great Depression. She describes working for Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles to manufacture airplanes during World War II, where she became the lead in her section. She talks about her brief career teaching in Grand Junction’s public schools, her role in helping to develop remedial education at the Lowell School, and her latter career in the Old Age Pension and Child Welfare divisions of the Mesa County Department of Human Services. She discusses her bout of Undulant Fever, which she got from drinking milk from an infected cow. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Fourth Interview with Howard M. Shults
In a two-part interview carried out over two days, Howard Shults talks about his experiences as a rancher and auctioneer on Colorado’s Western Slope. In part one, he talks about the arrival of his parents in Mesa County in 1903, their teaching careers at Pear Park and in Fruita, and his father’s move to a career as an auctioneer. He speaks about his childhood in Grand Junction and Collbran, his graduation from Grand Junction High School in 1923, and his twin brother Harold. He discusses helping his father in the auctioneering business, going into the farming and ranching business in Loma, and then going into the auctioneering business in his own right, a job he worked for thirty years. He describes the livestock and real estate aspects of his auctioneering business, and the increase in land value and development around the Mesa Mall. He remembers some of the old businesses and people of Grand Junction and Mesa County, and describes some of the county’s agricultural history. In part two of the interview, he talks at length about Colorado and Utah rancher Charley Redd, Unaweep rancher Dan Casement, Pomona rancher Ed Currier, southwestern Colorado rancher and land baron Marie Scott, and others he came to know through the livestock business. He speaks about early slaughterhouses, stockyards, and dumps in Grand Junction. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Fourth Interview with Velma E. (Borschell) Budin
Velma Budin talks about the history of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Colorado Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and in great detail about the history of the Mount Garfield Chapter. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of the Mesa County Public Library and the Museum of Western Colorado. *Photograph from the 1925 Colorado Agricultural College yearbook
Fourth Lecture by Al Look: Dinosaurs discovered in Western Colorado
Al Look talks about the stegosaurus, brachiosaurus, and other dinosaurs discovered in fossil digs in Mesa County and Western Colorado. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries, the Museums of Western Colorado and the Mesa County Historical Society.
Germans from Russia: A Panel Discussion of the Mesa County Historical Society
Justina Nelson, Alex Baeur, and Amalia Newman speak about their heritage as the descendants of Germans from Russia during a meeting of the Mesa County Historical Society. They talk about the history of their families in the United States and in Mesa County, Colorado. The meeting is entertained by a concert of Polka music. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Grand Junction Centennial Celebration Radio History Theater: A Memorial of Rim Rock Drive
To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play Rimrock Road: A Memorial, about the construction of the main road over the Colorado National Monument. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado. It was produced with the support of the Colorado Humanities Program, Boulder, Colorado, a state-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional funding was provided by the Grand Junction Lion’s Club and by Mrs. Josephine Biggs.

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