People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Rufus Hirons
- He came to Grand Junction, Colorado from Iowa at the age of three. When his family arrived in 1909, they moved to 1137 Rood Avenue. He graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1923, and began working for his grandfather, Rufus Tawney, in sheep and cattle ranching operations. In 1905, he was baptized in the Congregational Church and became a member in 1940. *Photograph from 1923 Grand Junction High School yearbook.
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- Rufus Tawney
- He came to Western Colorado in the early 1900’s, and established cattle and sheep ranching operations near Baxter Pass. This ranch land was later sold to Vail Associates and is now called the Vail Resorts Management Company. Also, he owned the Tawney Land and Livestock Company which consisted of ranches located in Mack and Minturn, Colorado.
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- Russel Roy “Russ” Sisac
- He was born in Palisade, Colorado to Roy Raymond Sisac and Ida L. (Foster) Sisac. He grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado and in the town of Mesa. The 1920 US Census shows the family living at 719 N. 6th Street, when Russel was 8 years old. At that time, his father and uncle owned and operated a grocery store at 2nd Street and Colorado Avenue. His father also ranched. He graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1930. While in school her participated in football, track, and basketball. He attended Mesa College, where he played basketball. He also played basketball for a team sponsored by Safeway. He worked as the caretaker of Mesa Lakes Resort in the 1930’s and 1940’s, a Grand Mesa resort run by his father and mother, Roy and Ida (Foster) Sisac. He married Edith Marie Huffer on October 3, 1938. She describes him in her oral history interview as “a tall blond… real tall blond.” In about 1938, Roy, Edith and Russel started the Mesa Lakes Ski Run, the first ski area on the Grand Mesa. Edith and Russel later became part of the Grand Mesa Ski Club, an organization that started the Mesa Creek Ski Area, which operated from the 1940’s until 1966, when Powderhorn Ski Area opened. In 2016, Powderhorn Ski Resort honored several generations of Sisacs for their contributions to area skiing. In 1954, he and his wife Edith Marie (Huffer) Sisac opened a new Mesa Lakes Resort, which overlooked Beaver Lake. He was an expert fly fisherman and often fished with his friend Roger Nash. He died at the age of 58. *Information for this biography was taken from US Census records and from an obituary for Edith Sisac published in the April 17, 2016 edition of The Daily Sentinel newspaper. **Photograph from the 1930 Grand Junction High School yearbook.
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- Russell Charles Johnson
- He was born to Henry Howard Johnson and Hattie E. (Allison) Johnson in Grand Junction, Colorado. His father began working for a narrow gauge railroad in 1880 and helped to build the Colorado Midland Railroad. After World War I he became a car repairman and train inspector for the Denver & Rio Grande. Russell’s mother, a Californian by birth, was a homemaker. The 1920 US Census shows the family living at 1330 Ute Avenue in Grand Junction, when Russell was two years old. At the time, he had four older siblings and one younger sibling. The 1930 and 1940 censuses show the family living at the same address. Russell was working as a carman helper for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad by at least 1940, when the census lists his occupation as such. He married Carrie Eva Russell in Grand Junction on July 28, 1943. The 1950 census shows them living on Red Mesa Heights with their four children, with Russell working as carman for the railroad. He was a member of the Rio Grande Veterans Club and the Odd Fellows. He died at the age of seventy-five and is buried in the IOOF Cemetery in Grand Junction.