Archive Search Results

Lina Mae (Smith) Biggs discusses the history of her pioneer family in Grand Junction, including their role in cultivating apples in First Fruitridge, and her father Silmon Smith’s life as a prominent water law attorney who helped draw up the Colorado River Compact. 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. *Photograph...

Carl Swanson talks about his early life and school days near Loma, Colorado, where his family settled and farmed. He recalls working for the Mesa County Road Department for 36 years, beginning in 1941, and becoming a foreman in 1953. He remembers road damage caused by mudslides on Douglas Pass that took two weeks to repair. He recalls the gilsonite mining boom and local coal mining. He speaks about clearing irrigation ditches and serving on the board...

Marie Spomer describes her younger years living in a German settlement in Russia, including homemaking tasks and funeral ceremonies. Marie also recalls what it was like moving to America, the jobs she took on after leaving school, meeting her husband, and moving to Mesa County to work on a sugar beet farm. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado....

Lois Long describes the homestead she grew up on near Loma. She remembers living in a tent and then a pre-cut house, and drinking ditch water. She recalls her father and uncle moving the Valley View School to north of the Colorado River in the 1920’s, and the school bus that was sometimes a horse-drawn cart. Leland Buniger talks about his childhood in Grand Junction, Fruita and Loma. He describes farming potatoes, beans and hay. He speaks about...

Former Grand Junction Fire Chief Frank Kreps describes living in a one-room log cabin on his parents’ Roan Creek homestead as a young boy in the 1910’s, the feeling of community among the scattered residents, and a sawmill that provided lumber to residents. He talks about his father’s career as a locomotive engineer for the Uintah Railway and the Denver & Rio Grande. He remembers having to split wood for all the sick families in Atchee during...

Ruth Goss talks about her early days in Fruita and Loma, Colorado, and about life on a farm. She remembers teaching at the Valley View School and Loma School for several years. She speaks about her husband’s job as a ditch rider on the Grand Valley Canal and the Independent Ranchman’s Ditch. She talks about dances that took place at the Loma Community Hall. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of...

Lee Toothaker discusses growing alfalfa and peaches and cattle ranching in Palisade, Colorado. He also talks about raising mules on farms in Iowa and Missouri as a child, and about his education and career as a teacher. 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.

Ruth Hoffman talks about her teen and young adult years spent packing fruit for Cross Orchards and other farms in Mesa County, Colorado. She describes the work involved in fruit packing, lighting smudge pots, picking fruit, the change in the kinds of jobs women did on the farm over time, and life on the farm. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of the Mesa County Public Library and the Museum of Western...

Margaret Snook describes the voyage to the United States from her native Scotland in 1910, and life in the Van Houten mining camp near Raton, Colorado. She and her daughter Ida May (Snook) Waggoner talk about William T. and Clara P. Snook, and their establishment of a homestead in what became known as Snooks Bottom. Margaret Snook discusses life in Craig and Axel, Colorado, where she and her husband Guy Snook worked supplying homesteaders with various...

Laura Foster talks about moving from Pennsylvania to Telluride, Colorado in 1890, with a description of their journey on foot with two burros over Ophir Pass, and about pioneer life near Telluride, including the time she helped her mother birth a baby in absence of any help (some or all of which may be a tall tale). She also gives an embellished story about her time as a mining camp and railroad cook, and gives what seems to be an inaccurate account...