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Doug Westcott talks about his youth in Southern California, and about playing music and making records with a band called the Esquires. He describes the deep US Marine ties in his family that led, in part, to his enlistment in 1960. He recounts his experiences as a Radio Relay Electronics Technician in the 7th Communication Battalion. He remembers training in jungle warfare techniques in the Phillipines, becoming an expert, and teaching jungle warfare...

Ray Bernal talks about his early life in the Grand Valley and the wide variety of jobs that he held, including work as a "gandy dancer" on the railroad, mining, farming, thinning beets, janitorial work, and herding sheep. He also discusses a group breakfast he had with President Harry S. Truman, where Truman's daughter staged a musical performance. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...

Emma McCreanor and David Leach speak about the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Mesa County, Colorado, part of the third annual Al Look Series of lectures at the Museum of the West in 1983. Leach gives particular attention to the CCC camps on the Colorado National Monument and describes the road-building disaster in which several men died. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration...

Laird Smith talks about the life of his father, Silmon Smith. He recounts his father’s childhood trapping bear on the Grand Mesa at the age of thirteen, running a fruit and vegetable cart while in high school, and graduating second in his class from the Franklin School. He speaks about his father’s education at Colorado College, his position as editor of the college paper, and his work as the assistant weatherman in Colorado Springs. He recounts...

Debrah Mahoney talks about the arrival of her grandfather in what would soon become Mesa County, Colorado, early in 1881. She recounts the accomplishments of her uncle John S. Gordon, who built Gordon’s Ferry over the Colorado River at the confluence in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1883, allowing passage over the river, and who also built Gordon’s Toll Road, which went from the ferry up to the sawmills of Pinon Mesa. She speaks about her father...

To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play Four Seasons of Sports. This...