People

: Roy Raymond Sisac; Mesa Lakes Resort founder and ski area pioneer. He was born in Colorado to Julian R. Sisac and Amanda Elizabeth (Ross) Sisac. The 1900 Census shows Roy as fourteen years old and living with his parents in the town of Mesa, Colorado, where his dad’s occupation was listed as farmer. He married Ida Foster on December 29, 1909, and the 1910 Census shows them living and farming in Mesa. By 1920 they had moved to Grand Junction, where they owned a grocery store on the corner of 2nd Street and Colorado Avenue. Roy also ranched. With his brother-in-law, Lyle Foster, he opened the Mesa Lakes Resort on the Grand Mesa sometime in the 1920's. It was a lodge on Beaver Lake. With his son and daughter-in-law, Edith (Huffer) Sisac, he operated the resort until the 1940's. He also had a role, with his son and daughter-in-law, in starting the Grand Mesa's first ski area, the Mesa Lakes Ski Run, in 1938.

: Ruby (Whelan) Gaither; She was born in Roseland, Nebraska to Bert Whelan and Bertha (Hohlfeld) Whelan. Her father was a farmer. Her mother was a homemaker and the daughter of German immigrants. Ruby attended grade school in Roseland and Kenesaw, Nebraska, and then attended Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska, where she received a Bachelor’s of Science degree. She married Roy Oliver Gaither in Nebraska on August 20, 1924. The 1930 census shows them living with three children and Roy’s mother in Arcadia, Nebraska, where Roy was a clergyman at the Methodist Church and Ruby was a homemaker. In 1940, they lived in Crawford, Nebraska, where Roy was also a clergyman. They moved to Palisade, Colorado on July 1, 1943, when he became the minister at Palisade United Methodist Church. They moved to Clifton in 1945. She taught at Palisade High School for eight years and at Central High School for twelve years.

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