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The nationally designated Grand Mesa Scenic and Historic Byway crosses over the Grand Mesa on a 63 mile trek ranging from the orchards of the valley floor to the alpine meadows of its 11,000-foot summit. You can begin your trip in Plateau Canyon, where Highway 65 joins I-70 approximately 30 miles east of Grand Junction or in Cedaredge at the Byway Welcome Center next to Pioneer Town.
The Grand Mesa has long dominated the landscape and the lives of people in the valleys below, providing food, water, shelter, and recreation. Evidence suggests that ancient people were already living in the area 10,000 years ago. Ute Indians lived on the Mesa for centuries, followed by European explorers such as Dominguez and Escalante in 1776 and traders like Antoine Robidoux, who traded furs and wares in the 1820s near the confluence of the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers, close to present day Delta.
In 1879, a Ute rebellion, known as the Meeker Incident, marked the beginning of the Ute War and caused a transition of land use in Grand Mesa. The Meeker Incident was provoked by Nathaniel Meeker, a federal Indian agent who attempted to reform the Utes with religion and farming practices. Rebelling against such attempted reform, Utes killed Meeker and ten male employees at the Indian Agency. Following the massacre, Ute Chief Shavano led General Charles Adams and his troops up Grand Mesa on a trail near Lands End searching for women and children who had been taken hostage by some of the warring Utes. They were found unharmed at a site near the present town of Mesa.
The Utes prevailed in the short run, but were ultimately relocated to reservation land in Utah and southwest Colorado. Grand Mesa opened up to farmers and ranchers and was soon dominated by cattle and sheep ranches. Range wars between competing livestock operations erupted and were only ended by the establishment in 1892 of the Battlement Mesa Timberland Reserve. The historic Raber Cow Camp is a remnant of this era on the mesa. The log cabins at this site were built using logs from nearby forests from 1931 to 1934. The extended Raber family used these cabins when bringing their cows to summer pasture. The Forest Service, with the help of the Raber Family and the Grand Mesa Byway, has renovated the cabins and provided interpretation describing the history of the cow camp.
Touring the Grand Mesa has been a local pastime that began with horse and buggy trips through the rugged wilderness. Access was improved in 1895 with the construction of the first road through Plateau Canyon. The road was improved by convict labor from the Canon City Penitentiary in 1911 and later became part of the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway. The Convicts Bread Oven, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the only remaining feature from the prison camp near Plateau Creek. It now sits on private land.
A second access road to the top of the mesa was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933. The twisting, rocky road (Lands End Road) was then known as the "Veteran Road" or "Military Road" because many of the crew members were former servicemen. There were three CCC camps on Grand Mesa for crews who built the Collbran Road, three ranger stations, campgrounds and picnic areas and the Lands End Observatory. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the site is used by the Forest Service as a summer visitor center and provides a spectacular view of Grand Junction in the valley below.
Water on Grand Mesa has often caused a great deal of conflict between agricultural and recreation interests. Fishing rights were disputed in 1885 by William Alexander and Richard Forrest who filed legal 160-acre claims to control fishing on several lakes. Eventually, the courts had to settle the dispute about private ownership on federal land, and the State of Colorado has controlled the fishing rights ever since. You can read more about the history of water at the Grand Mesa Visitor Center on top of the mesa.
The byway's southern gateway in Cedaredge is home to the Cedaredge Welcome Center, where you can find interpretive exhibits about the byway and Grand Mesa. The Welcome Center is located at Pioneer Town, easily identified by the three wooden silos of the Surface Creek Livestock Company Bar I Ranch. Pioneer Town is a living history museum with numerous historic buildings moved in from other locations. The three silos, built in 1916 and 1917 of stack lumber with polygonal roofs, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and are the last remaining original structures of the Bar I Ranch. The Bar I was established in the 1880s as a cattle ranch. The town of Cedaredge sits on much of the original ranch property.
Fun Facts to Know and Tell:
Grand Mesa is reportedly the world's largest flat top mountain.
There are over 300 lakes and ponds hidden away on the mesa and more lakes per square mile than any other place in the western United States.
The Utes called the mesa "Thigunawat," Thunder Mountain or "home of departed spirits".
The nation's first Forest Ranger, William Kreutzer, was stationed in Cedaredge in the 1920s to manage the area.
The Battlement Mesa Timberland Reserve was renamed the Grand Mesa National Forest in 1924.
Other Places to Visit: Crag Crest National Recreation TrailFort Uncompahgre, DeltaDelta County History Museum
Best Times to Visit: Color Sunday is September 28, 2008
Cedaredge Apple Fest, first weekend in October
The Grand Valley Ranger District of the Grand Mesa National Forest, in partnership with Western Colorado Interpretive Assoc., hosts interpretive programs on various aspects of the Grand Mesa on Saturdays this summer. All events will be held at the Grand Mesa Visitor Center (on Hwy 65, the Grand Mesa Scenic & Historic Byway, 23 miles south of Mesa and 15 miles north of Cedaredge) unless otherwise noted. Please call the Grand Mesa Visitor Center at 970-856-4153 to get more information about specific events.
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