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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First Interview with Gertrude (Geiger) Rader
Gertrude Rader talks about the New Deal and its effect on her farm in Loma, Colorado. She then describes at length the migration of Ute tribal members from the Ouray/Silverton area to Eastern Utah every fall in the early Twentieth century, their camping near Rader's childhood home in Kannah Creek, and her observations of the Ute people. She also discusses her family's pioneer history in the Whitewater/Kannah Creek area, her time teaching in rural schools, raising and selling fruit on the family's homestead, her family’s method of hunting, the battle for water rights between Grand Junction and the farmers of Kannah Creek, the Sheepman/Cattleman Wars, her father’s accidental introduction of pheasants to the Grand Mesa, and the important role of a rural school in its community’s social life. 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. *Please note that the latter part of the recording suffers from poor audio quality.
First Interview with Giovanni Battista "John" "Bonny" Bonforte
Lieutenant Colonel John Bonforte talks about his enlistment in the US Army medical corps during World War I, and about his service in France, Germany, and Poland. His interview with David Sundal took place directly after the annual meeting of the Last Squad Club, which was an organization of World War I veterans in Mesa County. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
First Interview with Gladys L. (Landsdown) Gross
Gladys Gross, who grew up on an apple farm at the intersection of North Avenue and 12th Street, talks about her father’s residential development of their farm land. She discusses old businesses in town, including the icehouses utilized by the railroad near Third Street and how they burned down. She also talks about the desperation and hunger of people during the Great Depression, her work with New Deal programs, the route of the Little Book Cliff Railway, about hiking near the Pest House as a kid, and about her education at the early Grand Junction Junior College. 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.
First Interview with Glenn W. McFall
Glenn McFall discusses downtown businesses and business owners in Grand Junction, Colorado, as well as the shoe store he worked at for nine years, McConnell-Lowes. Glenn also talks about the involvement of the Ku Klux Klan in the Grand Valley area, the Mesa County Pest House and Smallpox outbreaks, the social scene and where people went to go dancing, the Mesa County Fair, horse racing and gambling, bailing rowdy cowboys out of the local jail, Eddie Drapola’s flight school at Walker Field, and flying airplanes. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
First Interview with Glenn Wesley Berry
Glenn Berry talks about joining the US Navy at the age of fourteen and describes his experiences aboard the USS Huntington, an armored cruiser. He also discusses working in a vanadium mine at the age of 12, becoming a machine shop apprentice for the Union Pacific railroad at fourteen, and going to night school to get an engineering degree after his discharge from the Navy. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
First Interview with Grace (Hill) Wade
Grace Wade talks about her childhood growing up in Cripple Creek, Colorado. She goes into detail explaining the layout of the town, the street car system, the red light district, her school, and her home. She mentions her studious piano practice that led to her advanced playing ability, her yearly trips to Texas and Denver to see her family, and her family’s tradition of going to University of Texas. She describes her teaching career in Cripple Creek, meeting and marrying her husband Troy E. Wade, her children, their family’s eventual move to Grand Junction, and her career teaching at Grand Junction Junior High School and West Middle School. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
First Interview with Harriet "Muzz" (Northrop) Johnson Webster
Harriet “Muzz” Northrop Webster Johnson recalls growing up in Grand Junction, Colorado and discusses the schools she attended, her father’s job at the Holly Sugar Company, her jobs after high school, her marriages, and the history of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. She also talks about starting over as a 58-year-old widower, when she lived and worked as a house mother at the Hawaii School for the Deaf and Blind. 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.
First Interview with Harry "Loyd" Files
Loyd Files talks about his early life in Kansas, moving to Colorado with his family via covered wagon in 1914, and the process of filing for a homestead. He remembers homesteading with his parents in Lamar, Colorado, and with his brother in Glade Park in 1920. He recalls working on the crew that built the Serpents Trail over the Colorado National Monument, meeting John Otto, and helping build Rimrock Drive over the Monument. He speaks about his marriage to Cordelia Hamilton and their life on Glade Park in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He talks about the salvage yard he ran with his brother on North Avenue in Grand Junction, and building the area’s first drive-in movie theater (also on North Avenue). He describes his development of the land south and east of the Veterans Hospital, in what is now the East Lincoln Park neighborhood. These developments included a midget racecar track, an airport hangar and runway for larger craft, the Starlite Drive-in, the Teller Arms Shopping Center, a residential neighborhood, and the first artesian well and drinking water source along North Avenue east of Lincoln Park. He discusses the history of Glade Park and using cisterns to store drinking water and refrigerate food on their homestead. He speaks about working through Colorado West Senior Citizen Inc. to build the Monterey Park Apartments, Grand Junction’s first senior-only housing. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
First Interview with Harry Sylvester Godby
Harry Sylvester Godby discusses his time spent working for and traveling with the Robinson Brothers Circus before moving to Grand Junction, Colorado. Harry also talks about his itinerant childhood moving from place to place, and the wide variety of jobs he worked throughout his life, including construction, mining, blacksmithing and potato farming, and how he was affected by the Great Depression. He shares his discovery of a large pile of boxes with old historical photo negatives from Dean Studios that were used by the Daily Sentinel, and his work as a heavy equipment operator scattering uranium mill tailings from the Grand Junction mill along the Colorado River. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
First Interview with Harvey Ball and Reba E. (Lester) Ball
Reba Ball talks about her upbringing in Palisade, Colorado, the history of Vineland, the ferry over the Colorado River, and the Seventh Day Adventist Church and school. She remembers growing up on a peach farm and aspects of peach farming, such as picking and shipping peaches. She discusses smudging to prevent frost, diseases and pests common to peaches, and pesticides. Harvey Ball speaks about his career as a manager of grocery stores, including Piggly Wiggly and Safeway. He recalls his father’s career as a fruit farmer. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado. *Photograph of Harvey Ball from 1927 Grand Junction High School yearbook
First Interview with Helen (Hawxhurst) Young
Helen Young discusses the early history of Collbran and Plateau Valley. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
First Interview with Helen Elizabeth (Maher) Bowman and Marion George Bowman
Helen and Marion Bowman discuss Marion Bowman’s father, George Bowman, founder of the Palisades National Bank, United Fruit Growers Association, and the inventor of the Fruit Gathering Bag (Bowman picking sack). They also discuss the history of fruit growing in Palisade, Colorado. 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.

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