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![[Image ID:] A group of oil shale workers are re-vegetating processed shale pies. Image courtesy of the US Department of Energy.](https://mesacountylibraries.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/14497978485_715ac04330_o-3-150x150.jpg)
Forty-one years ago, on May 2, 1982, the news dropped like a bomb on the Western Slope; Exxon was pulling the plug on its $5 billion investment in the Colony Shale Oil Project, effective immediately. Overnight, $85 million in annual payroll disappeared as 2,100 workers were laid off from the project. The resulting upheaval was […]
Continue reading![Photo depicting an early shale mining operation in Parachute Creek. Workers can be seen hauling shale by wheelbarrow or by horse-drawn wagon. [Image Credit: Museums of Western Colorado]](https://mesacountylibraries.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2004.44.1007-150x150.png)
Here on the Western Slope, we have a long and troubled history with oil shale. Despite its tremendous abundance, the oil shale industry has never really lived up to its many promises to transform Western Colorado into a domestic energy juggernaut, and in the past these broken promises have cost us dearly. The economic, environmental, […]
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Here at Mesa County Libraries, we’re very passionate about our local history, and we love to help make researching it more accessible for everyone. If there’s one eResource we love that helps open a window into the past, it would definitely be Colorado Historic Newspapers! The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) is a free archive […]
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“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 […]
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According to Muriel Marshall in her history of the Uncompahgre, cowboy and probable horse rustler Ben Lowe may once have ridden his horse into the John Davis clothing store on Grand Junction’s Main Street during one of his “Shoot up Main” weekends. Marks on the floor from the horse were reportedly visible in the clothing […]
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For some, winter becomes a time to celebrate quiet solitude and reflection. For early Westwater Canyon homesteader, Veda Macbeth, solitude existed no matter the season. Veda was born in 1899 and spent the first decade of her childhood living in La Sal county, Utah. She moved to Mack, Colorado in 1919 where she began work […]
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As a former sheriff’s deputy and an African-American woman involved with community and educational efforts through Black Citizens and Friends, Janielle Westermire has a unique and very personal perspective on race relations, and on the Black Lives Matter protests that gripped the United States following the 2020 death of George Floyd. In her interview with […]
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Beginning tomorrow on First Friday, the Art Center of Western Colorado will host a new exhibit titled Alfred Nestler: The Power of the Pen: An Exhibition from The Art Center’s Permanent Collection. In honor of this showing, we explore the life of Nestler, an artist who got his start in Grand Junction before becoming part […]
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What is a three wire winter, you ask? For folks that live in snowy, persistently cold places like Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a three wire winter occurs when the snow reaches the third wire on a barbed wire fence. It is also the name of a wonderful little publication put out from 1976 to 1988 by […]
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In 1981, coinciding with Grand Junction’s centennial celebration, the Mesa County Oral History Project (MCOHP) produced forty-eight radio plays about local history. Over forty-eight weeks, these plays aired on radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA, with the last play broadcasting on August 21, 1982. Now, the Radio History Theater plays have been digitized and […]
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