Colorado Centennial - Bicentennial Oral History Project

Details

Collection NumberOH-IDescriptionThe Colorado Centennial-Bicentennial Oral History Project, a documentary of the Eastern Plains of Colorado, was conducted in 1976 and was funded by a $2,500 grant from the Friends of the Library with matching funds from the Colorado Centennial Commission. Administered and supervised by Brenda Hawley, local history librarian of the Pikes Peak Library District, the project interviewers and photographers were Andrew Gulliford and Randall Teeuwen.

Covering the area between the Arkansas and Platte rivers, from the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies to the Kansas border, the project is a portrait of the plains and its people. The interviews reflect the past and present life experiences of prairie residents. Personal reminiscences from long-time residents of the area recreate life in sod houses, battles with winter blizzards and summer droughts, trips in covered wagons and the hardships encountered in establishing and maintaining a homestead. Residents of today relate their experiences as farmers and ranchers and their problems with infrequent harvests, a water supply running low because of the urbanization of the Front Range, and short grasses for the grazing of cattle.

The 38 tapes with 56 individual interviews are housed in the archives of Pikes Peak Library District’s Special Collections. A complete listing of the interviews is available at the Special Collections reference desk. Transcripts for many of the interviews are available for use. Also housed in the archives are photographs and an edited audio program entitled “As Far as the Eye Can See: A High Plains Documentary,” which was compiled from the interviews and photographs collected during the project.

Digitization
The audio tapes from the Colorado Centennial-Bicentennial Oral History Project and from “As Far as the Eye Can See” were digitized in 2008 and are available for study and use in Regional History & Genealogy.
CollectionOral Histories

PDF

Interview with Adolph Brachtenbach

Interview with Don Tarver

Interview with Roy Irvin Pring

Interview with Kirk M. Hanna

Interview with John Nick and Kathryn Sakala

Interview with Harry Collier

Interview with Robert Allen Burghart, Jr.

Colorado Centennial - Bicentennial Oral History Project

Digital Collections

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Colorado Centennial - Bicentennial Oral History Project