Dominguez/Bridgeport—preserving our past for the future

GRAND JUNCTION, CO – The Bureau of Land Management Grand Junction Field Office, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the Museum of Western Colorado's Loyd Files Research Library, will be conducting interviews for the Bridgeport – Big Dominguez Canyon Oral History Project on Friday, December 2, 2005. Ed Carpenter, a local author whose father was the first director of the Grazing Service, is conducting interviews with families closely connected to the area. Crafts Black, and his sisters Anita Clark and Winifred Raber from Grand Junction, and Tom Musser and Jack and Bernice Musser from Delta have been invited to participate in this first round of interviews.

"Since we first started talking with the participants about this project, new leads and potential contacts have been made with other people who were involved in the early railroad and agricultural history," said BLM Archaeologist Aline LaForge. “We’re asking those interested in sharing their stories about Bridgeport to contact us. This information may be used in brochures and on a kiosk that will be built at the new Bridgeport bridge.”

“We are really looking forward to adding the information from these interviews to the Mesa County Oral History Project, which is headquartered within the Loyd Files Research Library,” said Judy Prosser-Armstrong, Director of the Loyd Files Research Library, Archivist, and the Museum’s Registrar. “This information is being added to over 2,000 hours of interviews that have been collected since the project began in 1975.”

Partners in this project are particularly interested in the history of Bridgeport and the Sand Flat area on the Gunnison River, as well as up the Big and Little Dominguez Canyons. Specific information is needed about the railroad buildings and ferry at Bridgeport in the 1890s, the agricultural history at Sand Flat, and the ranching activity from the Grand Mesa, across the Gunnison River and up Big Dominguez Canyon, on to the Uncompahgre Plateau.

Through an assistance agreement between the Museum of Western Colorado and the BLM, volunteers assisting with the oral history project are learning interview techniques. These individuals will observe during the morning session, and then participate in an afternoon lecture and Q&A session directed by Judy Prosser-Armstrong. Rick Cosby, who will be filming the morning interview, will provide technical insight on the requirements for filming and archiving interviews.

If you have any first-hand stories about the area or know someone who does, or if you have historic photos, letters, or articles to share, send us a written description of the type of information you have and a way for the BLM or Museum to contact you. Write to BLM Grand Junction Field Office, Attn: Aline LaForge, 2815 H Rd, Grand Junction, CO 81506. For more information about BLM’s cultural resources program, contact Aline LaForge at (970) 244-3038. For more information about the Mesa County Oral History Project, contact Judy Prosser-Armstrong at (970) 242-0971, ext. 209 or 210.

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