Grand Mesa Country : Stories from Mesa and Delta Counties in Colorado

by Fay, Abbott

• ISBN13: 9781932738223
• ISBN10: 1932738223
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-30
• Publisher: Western Reflections Pub Co

Summary

For those of you who think that everything significant that happens in Colorado happens on the Eastern Slope, Abbott Fay explains in detail why the counties of Mesa and Delta on the Western Slope have accumulated a significant degree of international interest over the years. For example: 1)McCall's magazine once published an article on Grand Junction entitled "America's Most Radioactive City;" 2) Tom "Silent" Smith, the man who trained "Seabiscuit," lived in Grand Junction and worked on a ranch in Unaweep Canyon; and 3) in 1898, a huge apple was exhibited at the Delta County Fair in Delta, which is believed to have set a national record measuring twenty-seven inches in circumference, nine inches in diameter, and weighing thirty-four and three-quarter ounces.

Table of Contents

The Land and Its Discoverers	7	(11)
A Ute Legend of Thunder Mountain	2	(2)
The Ooze and Flow of Basalt	4	(1)
Weird Formations	5	(2)
What Riggs Dug Up	7	(2)
Rivera Got to Purgatory	9	(1)
Marrying the Governor's Daughter	10	(2)
Naming the Book Cliffs	12	(1)
North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail	13	(2)
The Desert Didn't Stink	15	(1)
How Otto Mears Cheated the Utes	16	(2)
Mines and miners
Coal, Copper, and Alabaster	18	(2)
Miner, Cobbler, and Dairyman	20	(2)
The Old Gilsonite Refinery	22	(2)
When the Bowie Mine Moved to Denver	24	(2)
Trees, Fruits, and Veggies
Three of Colorado's Largest Trees	26	(1)
The Grand Valley's First Successful Peach Orchard	27	(1)
Where Did the Globe Willows Come From?	28	(2)
Creative Inventions	30	(2)
The Great Smoke-In	32	(1)
The Seedless Apple Bubble	33	(1)
Before the Worms Arrived	34	(1)
The Big Apple	35	(1)
When Mr. Taft Came to the Peach Festival	36	(1)
Fed Up with the Feds	37	(2)
The President and the Peach	39	(2)
Busy Bees	41	(1)
Colorado's First Beet Sugar Factory	42	(2)
Biological Warfare	44	(4)
Cattle, Sheep, and Horses
Extending a Loan	48	(1)
Why the Horses Went Wild	49	(2)
The Great Whitewater Wild Horse Roundup	51	(1)
About the Basques and Their Ball Court	52	(3)
Raising Thoroughbred Race Horses	55	(1)
Cowboy Philosopher	56	(4)
Town and Road Builders
Staking Out West Denver	60	(1)
A Sickly Man Staked His Claims	61	(3)
Exploits of the Amazing Enos T.	64	(3)
There is Only One Paonia	67	(1)
Getting Clean Water to Fruita	68	(1)
Mr. Rhone's Roan Creek Road	69	(2)
Otto's Interstate Highway	71	(2)
A Town Called Welcome	73	(2)
That Mysterious Grave on the Land's End Road	75	(3)
Politics and Development
Grand Junction's Flirtation with Socialism	78	(2)
A Surviving Structure	80	(2)
When the Klan Burned a Hotchkiss Church	82	(2)
Walker's Short Stint with the Ku Klux Klan	84	(2)
When Fruita Changed a Law Overnight	86	(1)
Biggest City in Delta County	87	(1)
Deep Sea Diving in a Reservoir	88	(1)
A Bungled Bank Robbery	89	(1)
The Many Lives of Handy Chapel	90	(2)
A Miracle on Main Street	92	(2)
The Renaissance of Delta	94	(3)
A Tale of Zoo Cities	97	(2)
The Rise and Fall of a Philanthropist	99	(2)
Teacher and School Bus Driver Dammed American West	101	(2)
The Rainbow Invasion	103	(3)
Getting Educated
Chewing Gum Day at Lincoln School	106	(2)
"Mr. Junior College"	108	(2)
Job Corps Success	110	(1)
Quilts for Graduates	111	(1)
Where Talent is Enhanced	112	(4)
Medical Matters
Second Incomes for Doctors	116	(1)
The Diphtheria Dance	117	(2)
Physician, Rockbound, Rug Collector	119	(3)
Dr. Geno: Tracer of Cancer Cells	122	(4)
Sporting and Other Challenges
Two Bulldog Tales	126	(2)
Grand Junction Thrilled by Barnstormers	128	(1)
Tennis and Croquet Under the Rim of Grand Mesa	129	(1)
King Tut and the First Bank Night	130	(2)
"The Longest Distance Between Two Points"	132	(2)
A World Champion Weightlifter	134	(1)
Bridge Champions	135	(3)
They Took Pen in Hand
Agricultural Writer Who Founded Fruita	138	(2)
One of the First Books Published in Delta County	140	(1)
Our Earliest Cowboy Poet	141	(1)
Cattle, Sheep, and Kannah Creek	142	(1)
Shepherd, Photographer, Naturalist, Philosopher	143	(2)
A Comedy Set in "Shale City" Colorado	145	(1)
How to Have a Good Funeral	146	(3)
A Man of Many Talents	149	(2)
North Fork's Famed Historian	151	(2)
A Premier Writer of Western History	153	(2)
Annals of Delta County	155	(1)
Inspiration for "Lilies of the Field?"	156	(2)
Military Matters
U.F.O.s Over Book Cliffs in World War I	158	(1)
Paranoia in World War I	159	(2)
The First Draftee to Become a Four-Star General	161	(2)
Meeting the Troops in World War II	163	(2)
P.O.W. Escape!	165	(1)
The Memorial Bell Tower	166	(4)
Delights for Eyes, Ears, and Tongue
Glory Days in the Park Opera House	170	(2)
"The Dean of Colorado Cameramen"	172	(2)
A Shy But Famous Artist	174	(4)
The Lady with the Camera	178	(1)
Biggest Crowd for a Performance in Grand Junction?	179	(2)
The Savage Bells in Delta	181	(2)
The King of Siam's Robe in Delta	183	(2)
Accepting Only the Finest Sculptors	185	(1)
Weddle's Gardens	186	(2)
Observing the Equinox	188	(1)
The Sweet Taste of Success	189	(3)
A Few More Characters and Oddities
The Remarkable "Moccasin Bill"	192	(2)
The Holy Poacher	194	(1)
Those Grand Mesa Skeeters	195	(1)
Haunted by the Ghosts of His Victims	196	(1)
The Swastika Stone	197	(2)
When the Gilmans Came to Town in DeBeque	199	(1)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	200	(2)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	202	(7)
INDEX	209