TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Introduction
Section
One: Utopia Found
Colorado
Avenue—“Hoodoo Avenue”
Colorful Colorado Avenue
Jeanette Morris—The Rest of the Story
Around
Colorado Avenue
Elks Lodge 575, What Happens When Elk Become
Bored
City Park, Grand Junction’s Madison Square
Gardens
Phantom of the Park Opera House
Main
Street or Bust
The Changing Face of Main Street
Downtown, Where Everything’s Waiting For You
The Merchant’s Carnival of 1903
Some Downtown
Businesses
Oh, For a Good Night’s Sleep
Chance Meeting on an Airplane
C.D. Smith Drug Stores, Arsenic and Albilena
The Ladies Tailoring College, 560 Colorado Avenue/131 S. 6th
Street
A Sudsy Tin, a Smelly Trim, and a Shot of Whiskey
A “Fair” to Remember—The Fair Store
Some Fair Employees
There’s a New House in Town
The First Natatorium—NOT Moyer Pool
The Currie Block—461 Main Street
Adrift in the Past
Woolworth’s
A
Few Downtown Financial Institutions
Safer Than an Outhouse
The Bank Corner, First National Bank-Grand Valley National Bank-First
National Bank
A Debt Repaid
What Makes a City Grow? Why, Financial Panics, Of Course!
This Bank Begat That Bank
The Beacon Newspaper: Just in Time
The Bank of Grand Junction—A Family Affair
Alpine Saves The Day
Rood
Avenue
The Civic Block
The YMCA—For The Making of Men
The Post
Office/Federal Courthouse—Going Postal in Grand Junction
Wayne N. Aspinall—The “Chairman”
Terror in the Federal Building—Wednesday, February 3, 1988
The G.A.R. Encampment of
1910—Friendly Invasion of the Blue and Gray
Chowing
Down in the Big City
Section
Two: Interesting People, Places, and Events
People
of Grand Junction
Bob Smith, KKCO Weekend News Anchor
Dead in the Water
A.C. Rinderle—Oldest Colorado Lottery Winner
Jim Petty Holds World Record for Most Enthusiastic Unicyclist
Lee Willey, Airmail Pilot
Gay Johnson, Western Legend
Ryan Patterson, Boy Inventor
Mentorship
James Purcell and the Senate Saloon
Dean Van Gundy, Warrior
The Louis J. Eliopulos Story
Samuel Suplizio
Jamie Hamilton
Amazing Baby
One
Degree of Separation
Helen Keller Passes Through
Lewis J. Bornmann, Ph.D.
Lewis J. Bornmann, Lawman
The Jesse James/Grand Junction Connection
Interesting
Places
The Sun Building
Jerry Callahan, Political Cartoonist
The Williams House—1001 S. 3rd Street
Brown Cycles/Bicycle Museum
Porter Carson’s Bicycle Shop
East Main Street—The Other Historic District
The Corner of East Main and 10th Street
The Wendell Phillips Ela Story
929 East Main Street
First Fruit Ridge
Fairlawn—317 N. 1st Street
Lincoln Park
Interesting
Events
Gold Rush of 1884
The Alaska Gold Rush and Grand Junction
The Invention of the Smudge Pot
Pennies From Heaven
Lawrence Onan—Builder, Painter, Preacher
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
Bachelor Junction
Salt Lake City or Bust—The Pathfinder’s Expedition
Grand Junction Name Change
Relics and Other Interesting Discoveries
Ab-original Skull Found
A Coin By Any Other Name
A Merry Chase
W.I.T.
“My First Motorcycle Race”
Tidbits of Events
1989 Church Arsons—Messiah Lutheran’s Story
The Story of the Painted Shingles
Bang! Goes the Bicycle
Interesting Sidecars
Section
Three: All Things Medical
Is There A
Doctor—Anywhere?
Medical Incredibles
Dr. E. F. Eldridge
Dr. Roland Marasco
Dr. Paul B. Marasco, Medical Inventor
Dr. Ralph Pacini’s Legacy
Dr. Geno Saccomanno
Accidents
a’Plenty
Freaky accidents
Hospitals
St. Mary’s Hospital
The Long and Short of Hospital Stays
The Pest House
A Scarlet Fever Funeral
Section
Four: A Limited Look at the Arts
Music
Etta Carpenter
Susa Carpenter
Vernon Stiles—Cowboy Tenor
We Remember Melba
Lettie Smith and Donnie Cooper—The Panto-Maniacs
Boogie Woogie and Beyond
Monte Taylor
The Offerles
Gary Smith Productions
The
Art of Alfred Nestler, Southwest Painter
The Photography of Ola Anfenson
Section
Five: Crime and Punishment
A
Brief history of Law Enforcement in Mesa County
Laying Down the Law
Jailer, Edward Innes, Murdered
Benjamin A. Scott, First Lawman to Die
Harvey C. Bucklin’s Very Bad Day
A Few Good Men
The Sheriff’s Office
Charles S. Lumley, the Beloved Sheriff
Murder
in Grand Junction
Patti Haywood—All American Girl
1975—The Killing Season
Murder, Continued
Robert Spangler
Michael Blagg
A
Matter of Death
Funeral Homes
Hattie G. Pearson, Lady Undertaker
Fred C. Martin and Martin Funeral Home
Callahan-Edfast Mortuary
Cemeteries
The Jack Dempsey-Orchard Mesa Cemetery Connection
Potter’s Field
The Mysterious Vault
Other Orchard Mesa Cemeteries
Cemetery Stories
Laura Barnaby, Consort
Our Darling
Prohibition—The
Failed Experiment
Prostitution—A
Walk on the Wild Side
“240”
South Avenue—“The Row”
534 South Avenue—Jean Harris, Madam
538 South Avenue—Nellie G. Page, Madam
Vanna Harris, Madam
Inside a Crib
Joanna O’Hara, Madam
550 South Avenue—Alice Baine, Madam
Section
Six: Newspapers
The
Grand Junction News Story
It Don’t Pay to Flay the Editor
The
Daily Sentinel
A Day in the Life…
A Couple of Unusual Columns
Miss Teresa Oaklies, Fair Queen of the Rockies
Bobbed Heads and Bathtub Gin
Merle McClintock
A Light in the Darkness
Other
Grand Junction Newspapers Worth Mentioning
Baseball—the
Newspaper Way
Section
Seven: The Family Album
Then and Now Photos
There Are Places I Remember…
Black and White Sheep
Fun in the Sun
Main Street, USA—A Pleasant Walk Through Time
The
Coffee’s Cold
Notes
