Organizations

: Colorado Mesa University (Grand Junction, Colorado); Colorado Mesa University was founded in Grand Junction, Colorado in 1925. It began as Grand Junction Junior College and was established with the support of Colorado State Representatives Sterling Lacy and Ollie Bannister, who worked with representatives from Trinidad and Pueblo to secure colleges for all three areas. During its first years of existence as Grand Junction Junior College, classes were taught in the old Lowell School, which had been condemned. According to oral history interviewee Gladys (Landsdown) Gross, most of the classes were taught by high school teachers who donated their time so that the college could get its start. According to oral history interviewee Mary Rait, the University of Colorado played a large role in the creation and organization of Grand Junction Junior College (now Colorado Mesa University). The university sent a member of their public relations department to help establish Grand Junction Junior College’s credit system so that they were reputable for transferring students. Establishment of the university required a great deal of community involvement and support, with local people helping to coach football, direct plays, and work with student musicians. Students were charged $25 per quarter. The college was governed by a local board (all volunteer), until it joined the state university system in 1974. Involvement in early college athletics, while strong, demanded dedication on the part of athletes due to the lack, at times, of sufficient participants. According to Richard "Dick" Williams, who played basketball and football at Grand Junction Junior College, in 1928 the football team had only 22 players, leaving no room for injuries on the squad. They played the Western State College freshman, BYU freshman, the Olathe and Montrose town teams, and some high school teams. In his interview with the Mesa County Oral History Project, former Dean Clifford Houston recalled that when he took the helm of the college in 1932, local parents were still reluctant to send their children to Grand Junction Junior College, and that it was not an institution with good standing in Colorado. With the onset of the Depression, this changed, as parents and students looked for alternatives to more expensive Eastern Slope schools. Coupled with more extensive recruitment efforts on the Western Slope and in eastern Utah, the college saw increased enrollment. The early college was supported significantly by the Grand Junction Lions Club, who fundraised for early school teacher salaries, the college building, and for scholarships. The Junior College did not receive any state funding until Wayne Aspinall, then speaker of the State House of Representatives, pushed funding legislation through in 1937. The school was renamed Mesa College at that time. It began offering Baccalaureate programs in 1974. The college became Mesa State College in 1988. It began offering masters programs in 1996. It was renamed Colorado Mesa University in 2011.

: Colorado Midland Railway (Colorado); The first standard gauge railway built over the Continental Divide in Colorado. It ran from Colorado Springs to Grand Junction.

: Colorado Mountain College

: Colorado Mountain College, Leadville Campus; One of the original two campuses, now one of the three residential campuses within the district.