Since moving to Grand Junction in 1985, Patrick Metoyer has contributed greatly to the civic life of our Happy Valley hamlet. Like prior Mesa County Oral History Project interviewees Al Look and, more recently, Evelyn Kyle, Metoyer is a jack-of-all-trades, a renaissance man whose accomplishments include creations and awards in several areas of the arts, […]

He crawled in an occupied bear den for fun, cared for thousands of sheep, and helped build Rim Rock Drive on the Colorado National Monument. This week’s early Mesa County settler spotlight is on Kenneth Thompson! Kenneth saw a great deal during his days of early Mesa County living, all spoken upon during his 1977 […]

                          Wolves have not been seen in Western Colorado since ranchers and government hunters finished killing them off in the 1920’s, so the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s recent announcement that a pack of wolves may be living in Moffat County is exciting news […]

It’s been snowing in Mesa County, and I know a certain bunch of locals who associate snow with one thought – POWDERHORN! With the abundance of fresh snow the Grand Mesa has received in the last few weeks, it feels appropriate to share a bit of the area’s winter-themed history.  A prior Local History Thursday […]

Mesa County locals may know William E. Pabor as the person who founded the Fruita Town and Land Company and thus, the town of Fruita in 1884. But did you know that Pabor also began writing poetry at a young age, and became a nationally-known poet before embarking on a lifelong journey of town building, […]

In the early days of Mesa County’s Plateau Valley, specifically the town of Collbran, Colorado, there existed a newspaper called the Plateau Valley Stockman.  The newspaper began in 1901, changed its name to the Plateau Voice in January 1905 until 1929, and lastly went under new ownership and became the Plateau Valley Voice until October […]

The Mesa County Oral History Project contains some unexpected recordings, such as a meeting of the Last Squad Club (a group of World War I veterans), the True Epics of Western Colorado radio plays that aired on KREX in the late 1950’s (and announced in part by Solon Gray, who later became a TV reporter […]

  Anyone who shops at a grocery store during the holidays has seen Salvation Army workers and volunteers standing outside, wearing the telltale red apron and ringing a bell to collect donations for those in need. Early Mesa County resident Nellie (Edwards) Robbins was one of those people, perhaps the longest to ever stick around […]

Most Grand Junctionites know about Rocket Park, Lincoln Park, and the other larger parks that draw kids from throughout the valley. But the city also has some quirky little parks that not many people know about. Hillcrest Park forms the inner part of a cul-de-sac in the Hillcrest neighborhood, bears no sign that I can […]