A Plea to Save North Avenue
It isn't just about saving North Avenue; it's about preserving history and honoring traditions.
I’m a Colorado native, born and raised. Four generations of my family before me, as well as my generation and our many children, have grown and thrived in the Grand Valley. Our legacy and the fabric we weave is long, and will continue on. For me, after graduating high school in 1997, I went on to the University of Colorado to fulfill my studies in the building industry. My career has led me many places but none of them compare to my paradise, my Grand Junction.
On the surface, especially to an outsider, this “small town” might not seem like much. However, if you stay here long enough then you’ll learn the “Patriots” of Grand Valley understand the brimming rich and deep history that stretches beyond any personal agendas or political undermining.
Settlement records regarding Grand Junction have been documented from as early as 1881, before George Crawford decided it would make a great town site later that year. When Grand Junction was just a year old, Denver’s population was already a staggering 50,000 and growing. In those days, there wasn’t much between Denver and anything to the west. Glenwood Springs wouldn’t be settled until nearly 2 years later, the Hot Springs wouldn’t appear until 1888, and Hotel Colorado wasn’t ready to greet its first guests until 1893.
Many travelers making their way out west toward California, Oregon and Washington would find their way through Grand Junction. Before the reforming of Glenwood Canyon, travel was treacherous and long. Because of this, Grand Junction quickly found itself a rest area as the real gateway between the Rockies and the west. For a time, even before Grand Junction officially planted its roots, there was one road connecting Denver to Salt Lake City. That road, as it passed through the Grand Valley would eventually be named North Avenue for its position along the growing town site. Many groups ended up settling in Grand Junction for its great potential in farming crops, orchards and livestock. To this day, many visitors from near and far come to enjoy the fresh, delicious produce, all the while, taking in its never-to-be-duplicated views. Grand Junction is truly unique as being juxtaposed by its borders from the Grand Mesa to the Colorado National Monument, as well as the Bookcliffs to Whitewater. You’ll never find a scenic combination like we treasure so much in Grand Junction anywhere else, and you’ll rarely find a people like those who are blessed to call it “home.”
In 1911, George Crawford finally got around to marking an official plat of Grand Junction. North Avenue was so-named as the northern-most border of Grand Junction. South Avenue would conversely mark the Southern border. It kind of makes you wonder how meaningful a South Avenue would be without the counterpart we all know as North Avenue. Sure, Grand Junction, like any successful city, has grown well beyond those early northern and southern borders but we’ve never outgrown, or forgotten, the significance and memory of the city born between North and South Avenues.
Grand Junction Junior State College would later be founded in 1925 on 5th and Rood in the Lowell School building. The community adopted GJJSC as a compliment to the town, and never the other way around. Through its marked success, as supported by the community, the Junior State College was renamed to “Mesa College” in 1937. Roughly 51 years later, in 1988, it would become known as Mesa State College. In 2011, the State of Colorado officially recognized the institution as Colorado Mesa University. This was 100 years following Mr. Crawford’s plat drawing, and 130 years after Grand Junction was settled. Over a century of history and a strong yet humble people had been cultivated and thrived by the time any University would mark its place.
To this day I’m often pleasantly surprised to meet people from places as far as Europe, the Philippines, Asia, Indonesia, and even South Africa that have visited Grand Junction. Surprisingly, a significant amount of them had worked in nearby mining or other towns during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and they would often visit Grand Junction as the place to wet their whistle, cut a rug, dine and rest in good company, or to shop for the latest fashions. This was nothing new to Grand Junction as it's always been a hub for travelers and commerce, and always will be.
North Avenue itself has just about always been a primary thoroughfare through the City. It’s no wonder generations would adopt the tradition of cruising back and forth, making new friends, and gathering at the hangouts along the stretch. Many businesses have flourished, and taken great benefit in both the destination and passage known as North Avenue. Marketing and wayfinding often reference North Avenue as the well-known landmark. You can’t miss it, and everyone knows it.
Once Grand Junction Junior College was eventually established in that little room on 5th and Rood, Grand Junction had already become a regular waypoint between the nearest metropolitan areas. You see, unlike the University of Colorado at Boulder is to the city of Boulder, that little college was never centric to this city. Its people and its history and their roots, including all that came before have always been the focus. Being alumnus from CU Boulder, I understand the idea. I know what a city born with a university as its focus can be like. Other cities have also made it work for them. There’s one key factor that you all have missed: it’s how they started. As a leader in international building practice, I know that this contrived effort will not work. I’ve witnessed and studied very similar efforts that eventually fell into ruin and collapse. A city’s origins and the culture of its people are its greatest assets. I love Boulder, and I love Grand Junction even more. Grand Junction just is not Boulder, and it’s folly to try to force it to be so. If you want Boulder, you know where it is. The city, the culture and its people just aren’t of the same mold. This isn’t a college town but instead a family-centric town, where we get sun-chapped lips watching the sun set behind the Monument, and bring our children on a drive over the Mesa to witness the changing of the colors. I’m blessed to have been brought up here, and had the values and traditions of our community instilled upon me, as they were to my parents, and the generations before them.
Perhaps you don’t care for traditions, or for sentiments. Maybe you’re more interested in facts and figures. Here are both for your consideration:
According to Forbes, 2017, Grand Junction’s main industries include energy, agriculture and tourism. Contrasting that to Boulder, who, not surprisingly boasts Aerospace, Defense, Technology and Education as its major industries. Further, Forbes indicates the current gross metro product for Grand Junction amounts to $6.9 billion, and goes on to state “The city sits near the mid-point of the Grand Valley, a major fruit-growing region, where several wineries have recently been established. The Colorado National Monument, a unique series of canyons and mesas, overlooks the city on the west, while most of the area is surrounded by public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The Book Cliffs are a prominent series of cliffs that define the northern side of the Grand Valley. The Grand Junction area has turned into a major mountain biking destination, with many bikers coming from all over the country to enjoy the area's abundant single-track trails. Grand Junction is also home to the Country Jam Ranch, a permanent festival site built for music festivals, the most well-known of which is Country Jam.” Interestingly enough, the figure doesn’t depict anything regarding Colorado Mesa University.
According to the Grand Junction Economic Partnership, Grand Junction’s key industries are “aviation and aerospace,” “energy and renewables,” “medical and health care,” “information and creative technology,” and “outdoor recreation.” That’s not to say CMU isn’t important to the people of Grand Junction. Rather, we all cherish and respect it, and have supported its growth over these years. It’s just never been the single, centric factor that makes up Grand Junction and why we call this home.
The State of Colorado’s 2015 and 2016 financial and compliance audit of Colorado Mesa University reveals its student, faculty and staff population totaled just over 8,500 of Grand Junction’s 61,881 population in 2016, not including Clifton, Fruitvale, Palisade, Redlands, Fruita, and the rest of the Mesa County, which amounted to 148,513 in 2015. The audit continues in stating that CMU’s net financial position (expendable and non-expendable) as of June 30, 2016 was $182.5 million, less than 3% of Grand Junction’s total industry reflection. Granted, CMU does impact the area financially for employing Grand Junction’s residents, hiring local building industry professionals during periods of growth, as well as fostering local events and a college atmosphere where attendees generally like to spend on local resources and fare.
Colorado Mesa University is certainly respected and revered. However, Grand Junction is a community who attends JUCO (along North Avenue, I should add), enjoys taking advantage of our natural environment, thrives in inspiring and engaging in the arts, and being a people who are humbly proud, and fiercely loving to everyone and everything within. We are a people who have grown up, travelling to and fro, along North Avenue from the time it was but a narrow road through a calm dell. North Avenue is more than a little street to be ripped away from its people into an underhanded agenda. North Avenue, as much as it flows through our City, is a landmark through our entire history. North Avenue will so be throughout all history.
The people of Grand Junction are relatively courteous and polite. It’s nothing strained or superficial. No, this type of demeanor comes from years of culture, and from all of those hard working citizens who have built this City together. The people of Grand Junction don’t lurk in dark corners, and exploit nonsense opportunities to garner acceptance of selfish ambitions. We don’t let nonsense pass us by either. We face it, head on. That’s how we were raised; to stand up for what’s right, and not let ego or resentment dictate our actions.
Not to be confused for weakness or being overly passive, most of these people won’t tell you what they really think of those who snuck into our home and seeks to unweave our cultural fabric. Most of us won’t tell you what kind of a snake or quivering rat would lurk about until the community had left, and only a couple of stragglers representing the City were left to hear those still-unverified claims. Not a single one of you accepting the cunning slight to change an honored landmark really had the community’s interests in your hearts. Not a single one of you had the spine to present and deliberate the decision the Grand Junction way, the democratic way, one that would truly embrace our people and our cultures and ask us what we want. None of you acted in a manner that represented what we, the people of this City felt would be expedient for us and our community. None of you truly align with our goals and passions. We love CMU but Grand Junction is not a college town. WE don't want that.
Thank you all who have stood up for and supported the embrace of our history.
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