It may seem unlikely to the Grand Valley’s newer and/or younger residents, but for many years, North Avenue was a big commercial and social destination that went beyond fast food restaurants and discount stores. In the original platting of Grand Junction in 1881-2, North Avenue served as the northern boundary to town, and a quick […]
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Local History Thursday: The Headquarters of Mesa County’s Uranium Boom
In early Mesa County, first there was the fruit boom, then came uranium. The Grand Valley experienced an explosion of activity like no other in the 1940’s when it became “The Uranium Capitol of the World.” Unbeknownst to me before listening to Wayne Farley’s Mesa County Oral History Project interview, the Manhattan Project was a […]
Continue readingLocal History Thursday: The Electric Outhouse Toilet
Stuck between modern amenities and primitive facilities, Judge Logan of Grand Junction chose a middle and ultimately shocking course in order to gain some sort of comfort while using the bathroom. The judge owned what Mesa County Oral History Project interviewee Glenn McFall called “a real nice home” near the brickyard (so presumably in the […]
Continue readingLocal History Thursday: 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 […]
Continue readingLocal History Thursday: The Journal of the Western Slope
For all you Mesa County history fans out there, we have an excellent resource both on our shelves and available as eBooks online that could quench your thirst for more knowledge. The “Journal of the Western Slope” was started by Colorado Mesa University, originally known as Mesa College. History Professor Paul Reddin was the creator […]
Continue readingLocal History Thursday: Bookcliff Avenue and the Little Book Cliff Railway
Bookcliff Avenue seems an obvious enough name. You would think that it was named, of course, for the Bookcliffs, our rugged desert mountains to the north of town, but this is only indirectly the case. Bookcliff Avenue seems to have been named instead for a railroad that once ran along part of its length on […]
Continue readingLocal History Thursday: The Colorado Civilian Conservation Corps
Between 1933 and 1942 if you were an unemployed man, there existed a Depression-era project called the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that would bring you on board to work. The CCC was created as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. It existed throughout the United States as a public work relief program […]
Continue readingLocal History Thursday: Walter Walker’s Involvement in Grand Junction’s Ku Klux Klan
As a world-wise newspaper man, certainly Daily Sentinel publisher and owner Walter Walker could not have been ignorant of the Ku Klux Klan’s campaign against immigrants, Catholics, African-Americans, alcohol consumption, “impure morals,” Jews, and just about anything else the Klan insisted was tearing at the fabric of white, Protestant America. Yet, according to several […]
Continue readingLocal History Thursday: Main Street Murder of J.W. “Big Kid” Eames
Back in early 1900s Grand Junction, the scene on Main Street was exactly what you may expect for a town in the Wild West. Gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging weren’t uncommon, and a popular fellow named J.W. “Big Kid” Eames decided to join in on the action. J. Walter Eames moved to Grand Junction from […]
Continue readingLocal History Thursday: Where Was Grand Junction’s First Hospital?
St. Mary’s Hospital and Community Hospital have both been valuable parts of our community for many years, beginning in 1896 and 1946 respectively. But did you know that Mesa County had a hospital that existed earlier than 1896? The Grand Junction News August 25, 1883 edition mentions that the Mesa County Commissioners were looking for […]
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