Michelle Boisvenue-Fox, a library administrator with a two-decade record of driving innovation and creativity in library settings, has been selected as the new director of Mesa County Libraries. The Mesa County Libraries Board of Trustees made the announcement today. Boisvenue-Fox currently serves as director of programming, outreach, and collection services for the Kent District Library […]
Continue reading
Walter Bigelow Cross seems to have been a man of mystery to the people of Mesa County, Colorado, a well-off person who kept largely to himself and shared few details about his life. They were well aware that he owned Cross Orchards, one of the largest fruit growing operations in Colorado in the early Twentieth […]
Continue reading
One evening while eating at a steakhouse with my grandfather, I noticed him gasp at the price of sirloin and mutter, “Why, in my day, you could buy a whole cow for $5.” I used to just think he was just being dramatic, but his comical and curmudgeonly attitude wasn’t farfetched: prices have raised significantly […]
Continue reading
About 100 years ago, a winged monster frequently roamed the Grand Valley region. The flying terror seemed to sniff out farmers who were living happily off the land, growing apple and pear orchards. It would swoop in and wipe out once-flourishing crops in what felt like no time. The apples and pears were feasted upon […]
Continue reading
Carl Howelsen came to Steamboat Springs from Norway in 1913 and spread his love of skiing and ski jumping. The town memorialized his important contribution to local skiing by naming their municipal ski area after him. Howelsen may have pioneered skiing in the Steamboat Springs area, but who actually built the first ski runs there? […]
Continue reading
“When my father reached this country, this little valley, to him it was the ideal place, the land of his dreams and he always said, and I quote: ‘This valley is a little bit of Heaven on Earth.” – Lucille Mahannah In 1895, Lucille (Hunter) Mahannah was born in the southeast corner of an adobe […]
Continue reading
Elvin Urquhart was a code breaker who helped the United States Navy break the Japanese Navy General Operational Code, or JN25, during World War II. Captain Joseph Rochefort handpicked Urquhart to be part of Station Hypo, a code breaking unit of the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence based in Pearl Harbor. In an interview with […]
Continue reading
Early Mesa County settler Peter Matteroli was the dentist who outlasted them all. Peter felt anything but a warm welcome when he first decided to start his business in Grand Junction in the early 1900’s. He rented a room on the 3rd floor in the Grand Valley National Bank Building (now the Dalby Wendland and Co. […]
Continue reading
Adrienne Kaga has been a valued employee of Mesa County Libraries for many years. Our Fruita branch manager is an excellent research librarian. If you want a piece of information found, obscure or not, Adrienne can find it. She also speaks Spanish, German and fluent financial-ese, as her previous career as a principal in a […]
Continue reading
“The mission of Handy Chapel has been and continues to be a beacon of helping with the spiritual, social and economic needs of all our fellow man.” – Josephine Dickey Nestled on the corner of 2nd Street and Grand Avenue in Grand Junction, Colorado lies the Handy Chapel, an important structural piece of Mesa County’s […]
Continue reading