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 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 (Maher) Bowman and Marion 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.
First Interview with Helen Lucile (Young) Johnson
Helen Johnson talks about moving to Denver, Colorado from Cleveland, Ohio at a young age and growing up in different places in Colorado. She talks about the fraudulent land sale that first brought her family to Delta County, Colorado in 1910, and that took her father’s life savings. She discusses living in a rented log cabin in Hotchkiss, her mother working as a hired washerwoman and housekeeper, and her father’s difficulty finding gainful employment there. She speaks about the childhood of she and her siblings in Hotchkiss, and about being picked on because they were from Back East, with darker complexions and nicer clothes. 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 Howard M. Shults and Helen L. (McFarland) Shults
Howard Shults talks about his career as an auctioneer in Mesa County, Colorado. He also discusses the history of people, places and businesses throughout the county, including the Cross Orchard and the Vernon Z. Reed Ranch. Shults’ wife, Helen Shults, gives her occasional insight. 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 Howard McMullin
Howard McMullin discusses the history of early Grand Junction businesses and buildings, and biographies of early Grand Junction business people. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado. *Photograph from the 1916 Grand Junction High School yearbook of Howard McMullin as a sophomore.
First Interview with Hugh R. Jones
Hugh Jones talks about his growing up in Bucklin, Kansas and settling in the Roan Creek area of Colorado’s Western Slope during the Dust Bowl. He speaks about working as a ranch hand and then as a welder in a shipyard during World War II. He recalls working with the Colorado Division of Wildlife at the Little Hills Experiment Station in Meeker and his subsequent twenty-five year career with the agency. He describes two tame deer named Zeke and June, trapping beaver at Grand Lake, and apprehending poachers. 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 James B. "Jim" Franklin
James Franklin discusses his life as a cowboy in Mesa County, Garfield County, and elsewhere on Colorado’s Western Slope. Franklin touches on cooking over the campfire, means of travel, cures for ailments, training horses, the first rodeo in which he participated, a large flood that destroyed his mother’s farm, and dealing with inclement weather on the range. 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 James E. "Buzz" Brouse
James Brouse discusses moving and going to school in Glade Park, Colorado as a young boy in 1915. He tells tales of cowpunching in the canyons near Westwater, homesteading, the difficulties of dry farming, and the methods and difficulties of transportation into town from up on Glade Park. He also talks about local murders, sheep and cattlemen wars, and the history of different schools in the area. His wife Ellen (Morse) Brouse, longtime Mesa County resident, also chimes in occasionally. 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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