When Colorado attained statehood in 1876, roughly half of the portion of the new Centennial State that lay west of the Continental Divide was still reserved for the Ute people. Grand Junction, Durango, Aspen, Gunnison and Glenwood Springs were among the many Colorado communities that didn’t yet exist. An 1868 treaty between the U.S. government and […]

John Harlow, one of the early white settlers in Mesa County, first planted fruit trees in 1882 at his farm at Rapid Creek, a few miles from what is now Palisade.  Those are widely considered the first fruit trees in Grand Valley, and they spearheaded the agricultural tradition of peach-growing in the area. Those trees, […]