Nifty Names: Ghost Towns of Western Colorado

Deserted, remote, forgotten. With over 1,500 named ghost towns, few states possess more abandoned settlements than Colorado. The promise of prosperity brought thousands into these settlements, only to be left behind when fortunes dried up. The vast majority of ghost towns in Colorado were mining settlements, founded to extract or process raw material from Colorado’s […]

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1877 engraving depicting the massacre of sheep.

Local History Thursday: The Peach Day Massacre & Sheep Wars of the 1890s

Content Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence and suffering committed against animals. Reader discretion is advised. In the late 19th century, competition between cattlemen and sheepherders over the open range often came to a bloody head in a series of conflicts known as the Sheep Wars. There were huge fortunes to be gained […]

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Local History Thursday: Abe Ong, Mesa County’s Pioneer Bootlegger

Some criminals achieve fame through cunning, working as masterminds and manipulating law enforcement to evade capture for as long as possible. Others become famous through building criminal empires, creating massive gangs that can rival multinational corporations in scale. Others, like Mesa County’s pioneer bootlegger, Abe Ong, seemingly become famous through sheer audacity. In my last […]

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Subject Guides at your library

Subject Guides at Mesa County Libraries

Did you know that we have some great subject guides on our website?  A subject guide is a web page or set of web pages that are created by library staff and provide an overview of a topic.  With guides on community resources and services, downloadable and streaming media, education resources, genealogy, legal information, taxes, […]

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old black and white photos in a filing box, image of man in military uniform propped up.

Starting Your Genealogy or Local History Research

Do you have a burning local history topic that you’d like to investigate, or a family history mystery that you want to solve? Mesa County Libraries and other libraries have some great resources for the beginning researcher. Patrons often come in looking for an article about a family member or ancestor. If you have a […]

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