Program Description
Event Details
Join Pikes Peak Library District as well welcome author, David Primus, to discuss his book Beneath Blue Mesa: The Gunnison River Valley Before the Reservoir.
David will present a slideshow of the history of the Gunnison River Valley before Blue Mesa Reservoir was completed in 1965. He will discuss fishing resorts, ranches, towns, and the narrow gauge railroad that now lie beneath the reservoir as remembered by local residents. Copies of the book will be for sale after the program.
This program is offered as a part of All Pikes Peak Reads.
About the book:
In the late 1950s, the United States Bureau of Reclamation was authorized to construct the Curecanti Project, consisting of three dams on the Gunnison River. The largest, Blue Mesa Reservoir, was created by the construction of a 390-foot dam at the start of the Black Canyon, inundating 23 miles of the Gunnison River Valley in the 1960s.
This is the story of the loss of three towns, sixteen fishing resorts, and fifteen ranches along the scenic Gunnison River west of Gunnison, Colorado. Local historian David M. Primus has spent over twenty years researching what was once beneath Blue Mesa Reservoir. He has interviewed dozens of people who grew up in the valley and have generously shared their photographs and stories. It is to the many people who were displaced by the reservoir this book is dedicated.
The book includes over 200 photographs and many stories of life in the valley before the reservoir. It can be used as a tour, allowing the reader to stop at various points and imagine what was there before.
About the author:
Dave has lived in Gunnison, Colorado since 1978, graduating from Western College University in 1981. After enjoying a 30-year career in technology, he retired in 2021. His life-long passion has been the history of the American West, specializing in Colorado history. A third generation Coloradoan, he has written the books Beneath Blue Mesa: The Gunnison River Valley Before the Reservoir, Steamboat Springs: Memories of a Colorado Pioneer, and was a member of a small team producing Medicine in the Mountains, a history of the Lake City Medical Center. He has been a long-time member of the Gunnison County Historic Preservation Commission, writes historical articles for the Gunnison Country Times, and has helped develop a historical mapping project with Gunnison County.