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Western Colorado History: Western Colorado History

Select Western Colorado Maps

Original town plat of Fruita, Colorado, established in 1884.

Sectional map of Grand Junction, Colorado. From the Grand Junction News, January 9, 1892.

Grand Valley Project map. United States Department of the Interior. June 1951, revised April 1960.

1950 Census Enumeration Map of Grand Junction

1940 Census Enumeration Map of Fruita

1940 Census Enumeration Map of Palisade

United States Geological Survey Historical Topographic Maps

Mesa County GIS Aerial Imagery, Elevation & GIS Data Download

Historical air photos of portions of the Grand Valley area for 1937, 1954, 1966, 1976, 1977, 1986, and more recent years can be downloaded at the following link under the section labeled Aerial Imagery & Elevation.

http://emap.mesacounty.us/downloaddata/

 

 

Mesa County Assessor Lookup

This resource is provided by the Mesa County Assessor and it provides information buildings and properties in the county. In some cases, the information includes historical photos and the year of construction for buildings. The link to the website is as follows.

http://emap.mesacounty.us/assessor_lookup/

History

Museums of Western Colorado Local History Tmeline

Museums of Western Colorado has collected a wealth of information about the history of the Grand Valley. Located on their website are timelines and information about the histories of Grand Junction, Fruita, and Palisade.

Online Local History Resources

Selected Historic Local Mining Camps on the Mesa County Assessor Website

Dominguez Archaeological Research Group Online Resources

Uravan - A Memoir of World War II

Vesta Price Fitzpatrick was born on October 24, 1890 in Buena Vista, Colorado. In 1942 Vesta and her husband John moved to Uravan where the couple lived through the end of World War II. Vesta wrote a memoir of the time she spent in Uravan. The memoir touches on what it was like to live in a uranium mining town and it describes the people in that region of southwestern Colorado. Her memoir can be downloaded as a PDF file at the link below.