Dreamers and doers: The first 30 years of Grand Junction, Part 2

Cultural interests were catered to early on with plays, musical performances and other entertainment. The town also hosted traveling professional performers. The Floradora Girls and Harry Houdini were particularly popular acts staged at the Park Opera House, with tickets priced between 50 cents and $1.50. Organizations such as the Coronet Band, 20 plus men who performed around the Western Slope, and the Amazon Guards, obvious in local parades as an all-woman auxiliary of Grand Junction’s local chapter of the Colorado State Militia, formed. The Modern Woodman Military Band was composed of union members: printers and railroad men. A uniformed Ladies Columbine Band was also a popular attraction. The Independence Day parades, as well as others, were well attended. Many cultural and educational venues were direct results of the establishment of schools…

Read more of the October Local Lore here. Thanks to the Beacon Magazine for sharing.

John Otto: ”Man With a Monumental Vision”

Friday, Oct. 7, 2011 • 5:30 PM

Second & Main, across from Two Rivers Convention Center
Including Chautauqua performers John Stansfield (Otto) & Lee Stetson (Muir)
Reception to follow at Two Rivers Convention Center Courtyard
Benefit Concert with Stray Grass at Mesa Theater 8 PM

About the sculpture: From all accounts John and his dog were a breed of their own, restless within the city but right at home while venturing into the open countryside. His horse Rowdy, dependable and surefooted, keeps a steady stance, allowing John a clear and focused view of the trail to be carved. While John has a vision for the future, his dog has his sights on a concern of his own.

Sculptor: J. Michael Wilson

John Otto: December 30, 1870 - June 19, 1952

John Otto, the “Hermit of Monument Canyon,” looked over nearby sculpted canyonlands and imagined a grand tourist destination where others saw only inaccessible desert cliffs and acres of prickly-pear cactus not suitable for farming or grazing. Convinced others would share his vision if they could just see those sandstone vistas, Otto blasted trails by dynamite and pickax, with dogs, burros and a horse for companions. One of his engineering marvels was the Serpents Trail, which literally snaked up 2 ½ miles with 54 switchbacks. Missouri-born Otto made his way to the Grand Valley around 1906 to work as a “powder monkey” - someone who works with explosives - on a Fruita water pipeline crew. On the wild uplift to the south he found a landscape big enough for his dreams. Possessed of a kind of manic patriotism, the union organizer and progressive thinker on previous occasions had been jailed and once committed to an asylum for perceived threats against three governors. But here he focused his considerable energy on conservation. Though he largely lived alone, he wasn’t a loner. Otto launched an exhaustive letterwriting campaign to local newspapers, lobbying for the canyonlands to become a national park for all to enjoy. He also served as enthusiastic tour guide, trailing up on horseback groups of town residents and business leaders in hopes of earning their support. Ultimately his tireless advocacy worked, and Colorado National Monument was established on May 24,1911, by President William H. Taft. A month later Otto married Boston artist Beatrice Farnham at the base of Independence Monument. The marriage was short-lived, she leaving just two months later and saying by way of explanation, “I tried hard to live his way, but I could not live with a man to whom even a cabin was an encumbrance.” Otto was named the monument’s first custodian at $1 a month salary, a job he held until the bureaucratic realities eclipsed his enthusiasm. He moved to Yreka, California, around 1933 to pan gold along the Klamath River, never returning to the 20,000-acre monument that surely would not have existed without this tireless trail builder.

To celebrate the second annual National Fossil Day the Museum of Western Colorado and Dinosaur Journey Museum will offer a variety of fun-fossil-filled activities. A coloring contest is being held for children ages 2-14. Coloring sheets can be picked up at the following locations, or they may also be found on our website at http://www.museumofwesternco.com/visit/dinosaur-journey/national-fossil-day/. Please note: All entries must be received by October 10, 2011.

Dinosaur Journey - 550 Jurassic Court, Fruita, CO 81521

Museum of the West - 462 Ute Ave. (5th and Ute), Grand Junction, CO 81501

Colorado Baby - 203 Grand Avenue, Grand Junction, CO 81501

Colorado National Monument - East and West side fee gates

You do not need to be present to win but we will need contact information in order to reach the winner.

To celebrate the second annual National Fossil Day the Museum of Western Colorado and Dinosaur Journey Museum will offer a variety of fun-fossil-filled activities. There will be special activities for kids of all ages on October 12 from 2:30 – 5:00 pm at Dinosaur Journey. The public will have the opportunity to speak with our staff paleontologists, try their aim at a bean bag toss, have their fossils and rocks identified and also learn more about our local fossils. Representatives from Colorado National Monument and the Bureau of Land Management will also be on hand to discuss the paleontological and geological treasures from our area.

Visitors will be given a sneak peak during our laboratory tour, which will focus on how fossils are collected, cleaned and entered into the museum collection for preservation and future study. Participants will be able to view the fossil bones of a variety of ancient animals that lived in the area during the time of the dinosaurs. The first lab tour will take place from 3:00 to 3:30 pm. A second tour of the paleontology laboratory will take place from 3:30 to 4:00 pm. A talk by Dr. John Foster, Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of Western Colorado, on “Dinosaurs from the Grand Valley” will be given at 4 pm. The National Fossil Day event will be concluded with an unveiling of Dinosaur Journey’s new “top secret” exhibit and the announcement of our coloring contest winners. These events are included in the admission fee.

Come on out and enjoy National Fossil Day!

National Fossil Day is a celebration organized to promote public awareness and stewardship of fossils, as well as to foster a greater appreciation of their scientific and educational value.

“What would entice an individual or a family to leave an established home for the unknown? The siren of “possibilities” sings temptingly to dreamers and doers. This pioneering spirit brought the first white settlers to the Western Slope of Colorado, shortly after the White River and Uncompahgre Ute Indians were removed to reservation lands in Utah in September of 1881…”

Read more of September’s Local Lore here. Thanks to the Beacon Magazine for sharing.

The Mesa County Library is celebrating 110 years, thanks to several dedicated women of Mesa County.

Margaret Ogilvie started a Women’s Association in Mesa County called the Isabella Club. Its main purpose was to better appreciate and understand the history of the American and Spanish cultures of Mexico and South America. Later it evolved into the Twentieth Century Club.

In 1896, the Twentieth Century Club partnered with another local women’s club called the Grand Mesa Club to form the Library Association. The Library Association rented a one-room sod building located at 645 Main St., which is where the Avalon Theatre is presently located. The Library Association began collecting books, and people were allowed to utilize the reading room by paying a $2 fee. Thus, the first library in Grand Junction was a private, subscription library…

Read more of the August Local Lore here. Thanks to the Beacon Magazine for sharing.

“Never judge your neighbor until you have walked 1,000 miles in his (or her) moccasins.” While admonished in this oft-quoted saying to be less judgmental and more empathetic to the plights of others, the illusive image of a Ute Indian in those well-worn moccasins might come to mind for those of us who call Western Colorado home. History tells the story of their circular migrations and foraging, so they most certainly walked their share of miles. But what do we really know about the Utes who created some of the first footprints in the Western Slope? . . .

Read more of the July Local Lore here. Thanks to the Beacon Magazine for sharing.

Discovered by Kay Fredette and Ray Bley in 2008

Grand Junction, Colo. — Several recent paleontological discoveries at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, located in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area (NCA), may give paleontologists a new understanding of the appearance of dinosaurs living during the late Jurassic period and the environment where these animals lived and eventually perished.

Volunteers with the Museum of Western Colorado uncovered three fossils, all preserved dinosaur skin and soft tissue, in 1993. Dr. John R. Foster (PhD) and ReBecca Hunt-Foster (MS) studied the fossils for several years to determine their origin and scientific importance. Their results were published in the May edition of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Two of the three specimens are thought to be from sauropods, the large, four-legged, plant eating dinosaurs that had very long necks, small heads and long tails. Most of what is known about dinosaur skin patterns comes from trace impressions preserved after skin presses into mud, leaving a “cast” of the skin. These discoveries were unique because the soft tissue associated with the skin was preserved, yielding better information about skin pattern, scale size and scale shape. This discovery is among just a handful recovered from the Morrison Formation, a distinctive band of late-Jurassic sedimentary rock more than 150 million years old, which is exposed in many places in this part of western Colorado.

“The national significance of the area’s paleontological resources is one of the many reasons this special place was designated as a National Conservation Area,” said Katie Stevens, NCA Manager for the BLM’s Grand Junction Field Office. “With experts like John and ReBecca working in these quarries, we can recover and share this exciting and important scientific information with the public.”

The Museum works in the quarry under a paleontological permit from the BLM. The quarry has yielded more than 10,000 individual fossils to date, and Dr. Foster is currently working under a scientific grant from the BLM to better understand the extent of the quarry and the conditions that made it such an ideal location for preserving fossils.

The dinosaur skin specimens are now on exhibit at Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita.

“In 1894, Walter B. Cross came to the Grand Valley to open the Mount Lincoln Coal Mine in Palisade. That soon changed when Cross decided to pursue the fruit growing business
instead…” Read more about Cross Orchards’ history here.

Thanks to the Beacon Magazine for sharing.

Dinosaur Days kicks off this year with our 2nd Annual Old Fossil Classic on July 29. The scramble starts at 8 am at Adobe Creek National Golf Course in Fruita. Go here for more information.

Thanks to Subaru for donating our Hole in One prize - a brand new Subaru Legacy sedan. Commercial courtesy of KREX News Channel 5.

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