People

: Frank G. Mancuso; He was born in Cosenza, Italy and came to Grand Junction, Colorado in 1909, when he was five years old. His father was Giovanni "John" Mancuso, a railroad worker. His mother was Mary Mancuso, a homemaker. He grew up in the Riverside neighborhood and went to the Bryant School, then to Lowell and Emerson. He worked in the ice house and then in the round house of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, cleaning windows on the engines. He became a long-time employee of the railroad. He also cut lawns for School District 51.

: Frank Gimlett; In 1879, Frank Gimlett and his parents moved from Illinois and settled in Garfield, Colorado. In the early 20th century, Frank Gimlett, otherwise known as ‘The Hermit of Arbor Villa’ owned two businesses in Salida: Colorado Wholesale Mercantile and Gimlett Lumber & Supply Co. In the 1940s, his Salida warehouse burned down and he subsequently lost interest in the business, abandoned his wife Gertrude, and moved above Maysville, Colorado, where he bought a small parcel of land, named it Arbor Villa (located between Maysville & Garfield), and became a hermit. Most of his time was spent panning for gold in the surrounding gorges but he also sold post cards to tourists on the summit of Monarch Pass to make his ‘foldin’ money’. He was an advocate for the reinstatement of the gold standard and frequently traveled to the east visiting with congress to promote his agenda. The Hermit published a 9 volume history of Colorado entitled ‘Over Trails of Yesterday’.

: Frank Harold Best; He was born to John E. Best and Sara J. Best in North Dakota. His parents were immigrants from Canada. The 1900 US Census shows the family living in Walhalla, North Dakota, where John Best was a farmer. By 1910, when Frank was 16, the US Census shows them living in Palisade, Colorado, where John was a fruit farmer. There, he grew up with friend Wayne Aspinall and the two of them attended the University of Denver together. Best became the proprietor of a ladies’ clothing store on Main Street in Grand Junction in the mid-Twentieth century. During Christmas time, he would place toys that local firemen had made for children in his display window. He married Essie Fedicia Jeffers in 1918.

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