Jack Kirk
Features Reporter

Photo by Chris Clark

George “Governor” Crawford had been looking at the map for only a few minutes when he said, “That’s it. This is where we are going to build a town,” pointing to a spot where two rivers met a bit to the west.

“But, Governor,” one of his friends interjected, “That’s Indian territory. We can’t build there.”

“If the land opens up, that’s the place,” he said of the town that would later become Grand Junction.

Lon Carpenter, an amateur historian as well as Executive VP at ANB Bank, presented an oral history of Grand Junction Thursday, Feb. 20, at the Museum of Western Colorado.

“At the time, railroads followed rivers, and in 1881, Crawford staked out the land to form Grand Junction Town Company,” Carpenter said. “Before Crawford had even set foot on the land, he knew that he was going to build a town here.”

When the railroad finally reached Grand Junction, according to Carpenter, they offered the town a deal—raise $50,000 for the railroad and they would put a depot in town, but Grand Junction couldn’t afford it. Therefore, the town gave the railroad company half of the profit of any of the town’s lots that sold and 20 acres for the railroad. Grand Junction became the halfway point between Denver and Salt Lake City and, eventually, became home to three different railroad companies.

As Carpenter continued, The Whitman Education Center filled as community members arrived, enthusiastically wanting to hear about the history of the railroad in Grand Junction and surrounding areas.

“This is the largest crowd we’ve ever had,” Priscilla Mangnall, President of the Mesa County Historical Society, said to start off the presentation.

Slide after slide, Carpenter demonstrated his knowledge of trains, from the types of track used between the two major rail companies in the area to where they got the coal for the power plant. During the presentation, if one were to squint, he would see the excitement and wonder of a small boy getting his first train set evident on Carpenter’s face.

To wrap up the presentation, Carpenter spoke of the hand-built model railroad display at Cross Orchards. The replica Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs depots and “the icehouses that were there at the time” were built by Carpenter himself.

“We’re building a real history,” Carpenter said. “That’s why I did research: to find plans to build these buildings, and I started to find out these other things. I love history. I never enjoyed it in college. I never knew I had a passion for history until I started this project.”

jkirk@mavs.coloradomesa.edu