Women’s History Month was celebrated in March, but it’s never too late to honor the life of a hardworking pioneer woman of Mesa County’s past.  As heard during an interview with the Mesa County Oral History Project, Mary Belle (Powers) Plaisted had a strong, poetic voice that paints you a distinct picture of what western […]

Local history buffs, rejoice! A new book has been published by the Palisade Historical Society. Written by local historian and railroad enthusiast Matt Darling, “The History of Railroads in Palisade, Colorado” has made its way to our library shelves. This read explains the complications, successes, and technicalities of the railroad making its way through the Grand […]

Dudley Mitchell was an early Mesa County resident and an interviewee of the Mesa County Oral History Project.  In multiple interviews with Dudley, he discusses his fifty-year employment working an assortment of jobs for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG). If you ever needed any information on how the railroad worked in the early […]

Before The Giving Tree, Toys for Tots, and the other wonderful programs that provide gifts to children in need, there was an organization called The Soup Eaters that helped thousands of Mesa County youth during the holidays.* The Soup Eaters was founded by Al Look during the Great Depression. Look, a columnist and advertising manager […]

The increase of convenient transportation methods has always been a fascinating part of history.  Roads were trampled out, built, and eventually paved.  The seemingly charming horse and buggy morphed into horsepower engines.  Living in a land where the prominent, fast-flowing Colorado River (called the Grand River until 1921) cut through the land for miles, many […]

Are you interested in knowing when your home was built, who lived there before and other information? Whether you own or rent your house, you can use these resources to research your house’s history (or your apartment or business’s history, for that matter).   Mesa County Assessor records You can use real property records held […]

If you’ve spent time browsing through the Mesa County Oral History Project interviews, you’ll notice two common occupations worked by women settlers: nurses and teachers.  As we’ve seen through the tireless, incredible efforts of our healthcare professionals and teachers during this past year, positions like this are crucial for the well-being of a community.  One […]

Reading through hundreds of oral history transcripts, I’ve found out some interesting things about my hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado. There were teacher-sanctioned boxing matches at the old Clifton School, a bear cub that lived in a South Street brothel, and of course (I mean, who couldn’t see this happening?), the time they allowed a […]

If you’ve ever stood in Grand Junction and looked east towards the Grand Mesa, you may have noticed some prominent bird-shaped white markings staining the mountainside. standing out amidst the dark volcanic rock.  In Ute tribal legend, these unique features represent the Thunderbird, an entity well-known throughout Native cultures.  Mesa County has its own special […]