People

: James "Jim" Massey Sr.; An early settler of Unaweep Canyon, Colorado. He was born in Colorado to Edward T. Massey and Mary E. (Bryan) Massey. 1900 US Census records show that his father was a dairy farmer. His mother was an Irish immigrant and homemaker. US Census records show that the family had moved to Mesa County, Colorado by at least 1910, when James was six years old (it is unknown if he was born there or in Colorado Springs). There, the family lived on a cattle ranch in Unaweep Canyon, halfway between Uravan and Gateway. He married Mary Ester Casto on April 1, 1927. They continued to live on the Massey Ranch with their children after ownership was passed onto his brother Weston and his wife Nellie. According to oral history interviewee Dorothy Tindall, James Massey was paid to keep, board, and prep a change of horses for the Gateway-Uravan Stage/Star Postal Route.

: James "Jim" Ortega; Jim Ortega was born in 1946 in Boulder, CO and was raised in Lafayette, CO. He married Edith (Torres) Ortega and their blended family had a total of six children. Jim spent his career with the telephone company where he was instrumental in many large-scale projects.

: James "Jim" Rigg, Jr.; A pilot who purchased the Drapela Flying School from Eddie Drapela in 1947. He was born to physician James Paul Rigg and homemaker Ruth Magdelene (Hargleroad) Rigg in Nebraska and grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado. He operated the Drapela Flying School until 1952, when he left Grand Junction, Colorado to go to medical school. He retained the flying service until 1954, when he liquidated the business. He provided most of the flying lessons in town following World War II. He was a physician but also conducted tours on the Colorado River. He later left Grand Junction.

: James "Jim" Tipton; A longtime poet in Mesa County, Colorado. He began the poetry group that meets regularly at Mesa County Libraries, and was an associate of poets Luis López, James Tipton, and others within the group. He also did readings around Colorado with López and poet Rosemary Wahtola Trommer. His books include Letters from a Stranger, The Wizard of Is, and Bittersweet. He died in Mexico.

: James A. "Jim" Fox; A volunteer for the Mesa County Oral History Project.

: James A. Jensen; James Jensen was a paleontologist in the Earth Science Museum at Brigham Young University. The 1976 BYU yearbook lists his department as Geology. Although he lacked formal academic training, he was considered an expert in his field. He excavated for dinosaurs in Dinosaur National Monument and elsewhere along the Colorado-Utah border. He invented a system of support for dinosaur skeletons that allowed such skeletons to be displayed without the use of externally-viewable supports. He described and named the Supersaurus and the Torvosaurus. He received an honorary doctorate from BYU in 1971. He was born and raised in Utah. *Some information taken from the Wikipedia entry on James A. Jensen. **Photograph from the 1976 BYU yearbook.

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