In the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth centuries, adventurous Mesa County citizens might mosey on out for a vaudeville act, a lecture, a play, a sermon, country dancing, live music, a circus, horse racing, a baseball game, a boxing match, a carnival, the Mesa County Fair, a medicine show, or even a Chautauqua performance. Destinations […]
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As my artist residency at the 970West Studio comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on how inspired I have been by people in the community this fall. I want to thank the Grand Valley for creating art with me in my sculpting workshops and open studio hours! I typically work in my home studio, […]
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Residents of the American West are no strangers to the idea of flash floods, but having one actually crash down on you while you’re camped in a canyon is different altogether. In August of 1941, cowhand Merle Winters was camped in the Utah Bookcliffs in a canyon of Diamond Creek. Winters was working for the […]
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Local artists looking for a unique opportunity have one more week to submit their applications for 2019 Artist in Residence slots at the Mesa County Libraries 970West Studio. Artists 18 and older who live in Mesa County may apply, and residencies are available to artists at all stages in their careers. Artists in a wide […]
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The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) gave Grand Junction its first permanent transportation link to the outside world with the completion, in November 1882, of a railroad bridge over the Colorado River at the confluence. The first train arrived at seven minutes of five o’clock on November 21, 1882, coming over the bridge with […]
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Art work is being sought for a juried art show that will take place as part of the 2018 Mesa County Libraries Culture Fest, an annual celebration of Mesa County’s cultural diversity. This popular art show will be exhibited Oct. 26, 2018, through Jan. 3, 2019, at the Central Library, 443 N. 6th St. in […]
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In the old days of rural schoolhouse education in Mesa County and the Western Slope, most kids simply withstood the smacked wrists and hits they received from teachers, and understood it was the price for bad behavior. Farm and ranch kids, the boys especially, were thought to be wild by nature, and they often simply […]
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In her interview for the Mesa County Oral History Project, Lucille Mahannah, longtime superintendent of Mesa County Schools, remembers playing in bountiful grasses that covered the dobies (desert hills) around her home between Fruita and Grand Junction. Anyone looking at the sparse vegetation on our rolling adobe desert might scoff at this claim, but Emma […]
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Sure, all that expensive rock climbing gear you have is great, but the next time you pull out your fancy climbing clothes, think of Jeanette LeBeau climbing Independence Monument in her socks. In her interview with the Mesa County Oral History Project, LeBeau talks about she and other children from Fruita, Colorado free-climbing Independence Monument […]
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Thanks to the Mesa County Oral History Project, patrons can now hear episodes of the dramatic Western radio plays True Epics of Western Colorado through the Mesa County Libraries catalog. After vaudeville’s decline and before television’s rise, radio plays were popular entertainment. Serialized shows like The Shadow and Little Orphan Annie inspired legions of devoted […]
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