Patrons searching for local history information often approach librarians at Mesa County Libraries for help. Sometimes, these patrons are best served by a book on local history, of which we have many (both in our circulating collection and in the Rashleigh Regional History Room). Other times, we connect patrons to information from the Mesa County Oral History Project, where firsthand accounts of Western Slope life in all its aspects abound (and become more abundant with newly added interviews all the time).
A bookmark from our Connect with Mesa County Oral History Project display.
Now, thanks to an innovative display by Mesa County Libraries employee Cheyanna, Connect with the Mesa County Oral History Project, you can easily connect local history knowledge from books with that in our online archive when you check out a book from the display (located near the adult non-fiction area at the Central Library).
Interested in the Colorado National Monument or in John Otto (the eccentric founder of the Monument)? Check out the book John Otto and the Colorado National Monument by Al Look. Inside, you will find a Connect with the Mesa County Oral History Project bookmark with a QR code. Scan the QR code with your smartphone and you will be connected to an interview with Will Minor and Lee Warner. In their interview, Minor and Warner talk about their knowledge of the Monument and give firsthand accounts of meeting Monument caretaker and trailblazer John Otto.
Do you want to know more about Chipeta or the Tabeguache band of Ute? Pick up Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker by Cynthia S. Becker from the display. Scan the bookmark’s QR code and it will connect you to the Second Interview with Gertrude Rader. Rader grew up in Kannah Creek, where the Tabeguache and Chipeta often camped on their return trip from the Colorado mountains to Utah.
Curious about Theodore Roosevelt and his connection to the West? Check out The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America by Douglas Brinkley, and be connected to Mabel Hart Johnson’s description of Teddy Roosevelt’s hunting trip in the Meeker area.
How about World War I? In the book The Great War in America by Garrett Peck, you will find a bookmark connecting you to the remembrances of World War I naval veteran Harvey Smith.
Find suggestions for further reading under More From The Catalog when exploring the Mesa County Oral History Project online.
Take home a book from the Connect with the Mesa County Oral History Project display today. And while searching the Mesa County Oral History Project or other items in our online archive, you will also find suggestions for further reading under the banner More from the Catalog. Happy reading and listening!