GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) – The history of Mesa County begins in 1881. The area was already inhabited decades before that by the Native American Ute tribe, but in 1881 the United States forced the tribe out. By 1883 Mesa County was officially established with Grand Junction as its focal point.
According to local historians, some of the first names suggested for Grand Junction were West Denver and Bellyache Flats. “Our main town founder, George Crawford, pushed for Grand Junction because it was the junction of what is now the Colorado River and the Gunnison River,” said David Fishell, Museums of Western Colorado. “They ran ads in newspapers in the Front Range, telling people to come to the Grand Valley.”
Mesa County eventually expanded and became known for ranching and farming. “The first thing that put the county on the map was the arrival of the railroad, it came here in 1882 when we only had a couple hundred people in town,” said Fishell.
Then, in the 1950’s a new radioactive mineral piqued people’s interest in Mesa County. “Many people were coming out here to look for Uranium. Full color, multiple pages, articles in Look Magazine, with mom and dad in helmets and jumpsuits holding a pick and a shovel, with a fake background of the Colorado National Monuments. To summarize, you can come to Western Colorado, and in a few weeks, you can find Uranium and become rich. Out of 10,000 people that came here, only a few made some money.” said Fishell.
The uranium industry ended around 1960 when the county’s oil drilling business took off and was the region’s largest industry until the late 1980s.
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