Western Colorado History: Western Colorado History

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/

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/

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.

Additional mine information can be found at the following link to the Mesa County Assessor Website.

https://emap.mesacounty.us/assessor_lookup/

Below are selected archived reports. A comprehensive listing of the reports can viewed at this link.

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.