western slope | Bob's History Quest

Soldiers in 1857 Utah War trekked through Western Colorado

The war that almost was between the Mormons in Utah and the United States.

Palisade High building has long history

Palisade High School demolished to make way for new medical clinic.

Murder in Unaweep Canyon

The 1885 murder of Samuel Jones is one of the earliest recorded in Mesa County. The fact that his partner was convicted of the murder,...

Modern technology and old irrigation

This column from The Daily Sentinel discusses how officials with the Mesa County Irrigation District and Palisade Irrigation District use...

Grand Valley Water War, 1909

In this drought-stricken summer of 2021, with the possibility that rationing of irrigation water could occur, it's worth recalling that...

Dart's demise courtesy of Tom Horn

Here's the second column in my Isam Dart saga. This one is about his murder -- and that of his good friend Mat Rash -- at the hands of...

Fake history hurt Dart's reputation

Isam Dart was a talented Black cowboy who lived in Brown's Park Colorado in the last decades of the 19th Century. But a book published 25...

A Monumental Undertaking

Members of the Plateau Valley Historic Preservation Society hope to work with the Colorado Department of Transportation to refurbish and...

Grand Junction's Socialist Mayor

This column, published in The Daily Sentinel online on April 19, is a follow-up to my column of April 6, about Grand Junction's City...

Chartering change in Grand Junction

In 1909, Grand Junction voters adopted a city charter that was among the most innovative in the country, including a new system of voting...

Trains on the West Slope

Attached are a couple of history columns I’ve written recently about the Denver & Rio Grande Railway’s work in the 1880s to cross the...

Drop Me a Line, Let Me Know What You Think