Cameo Mine, Mesa County, Colorado 1885 Cameo Mesa Colorado USA More than one person is credited with starting the mine. According to presenters at the Panel Discussion on the History of Palisade and Cameo Mining in 1982 (available through the Mesa County Oral History Project), the Cameo Mine was started by John Nichols, a pioneer who arrived in the Grand Valley in 1882. He began the mine in 1885, while George Smith promoted it. Others say that Frank Hickman, an English immigrant, coal miner, and early resident of Palisade, Colorado, also owned and operated the mine. It is probable that the Kerr Coal Company Mine, begun in 1899 by the Grand Junction Mining and Fuel Company, mined the same area as the Cameo Mine. By 1982, about 3,300,000 tons of coal had been mined there. The original owner of the Kerr Mine was Maxxis Sixbey. In 1899, the mine employed ten men and produced 1,300 tons of coal. Wilford M. Kerr leased the mine in 1934. His son Wilford Kerr, Jr. bought it in 1956. That same year, part of the land was sold to the Public Service Company, a utility provider, for a power plant. During World War I, the mine employed 225 men. During World War II, it employed seventy-five. In 1982, it employed 30 men and mined 325 tons of coal a day. yes yes Kerr Coal Company Mine