Palisade People -- Dewey Harris

 Like most of us, Dewey and Ed Harris go about their daily chores in a uniquely unordinary life. Things happened-- to them, his family, his land, -- yet Dewey and Ed remain busy and positive 

 Every ordinary life has extraordinary moments. 

Above Palisade in East Orchard Mesa, orchards are coming alive with the arrival of spring. Trees are budding while snow still outlines the swan and bear, or rhino (as some people call the images) on the west side of Grand Mesa.

Orchard growers both old and new are out tending to the innumerable chores of pruning and cleaning out the irrigation ditches around their fields.

Dewey Harris is not new to this hard labor. “We had over 3500 fruit trees on 34 acres when we started, but I’m having a little bit harder time of it now that I’m 90 years old.”

He goes slower with a bad knee, fading eyesight and hard of hearing, but he keeps working the family business, Harris Orchard but on a smaller scale. Yet he remains the family patriarch, a widower helping his two sons: one living in Panonia and one living at home with medical issues.

His 65 year-old son Ed has been a paraplegic since he was 10, but it hasn’t made either him or his dad negative about life. Ed may be restricted to wheel chair mobility, but he has two degrees (not counting that he is an ordained preacher), a writer with many interests and “loves.” Ed loves to talk and laugh about everything, especially about his dad’s actions.

 “When Dad’s in the house, he rolls around everywhere in my old wheelchair . When he goes out to do chores, he rides either his all-terrain vehicle or the tractor.

“A few weeks ago during a visit by the bookmobile lady, she looked up to see my dad roll off his ATV.  She ran out to help him. Dad was okay, just bruised and embarrassed, so he brushed off the woman’s help.”

“I didn’t roll off.” Dewey said indignantly, “I was driving under too low tree limbs that just pushed me off.” Then both father and son smiled about the memory.”

Ed loves to prompt his Dad to retell the stories of  how his dad and mom met, married and moved to their Palisade home.

Born in Branson, MO, Dewey Harris visited the Valley over 75 years ago.

“I wanted to travel west a little bit, and had a brother out here. They used to say if you come over the hill and drank some of Palisade’s water; you’d always come back.

“After I left out of here for a while, I did come back. It wasn’t for the water. I met my wife.” He paused and smiled about that reason which brought him back to Western Colorado. In 1941 Edna McClellan was one of the prettiest senior girls at Palisade High School.

“I come back out to see Edna. That was in 1942. Then the Army called me into service, so I took Edna back to Missouri.” They got married in 1943, and she stayed with his folks until she got to join him.

Dewey served as a Military policeman for the duration of World War II. He doesn’t talk much about those years, but he does remember what happened on August 6, 1945.

“Towards the end of the war we couldn’t get the Japs from killing our men over there.  So they picked a bunch of us MP company, men good with a gun, and prepared them for a special combat.”

After basic and specialized training, he was sent to Arizona. Those soldiers found they could request to have their wives come there. So he requested Edna, and she worked off base while he continued training for a secret mission.

Over 200 specifically trained marksmen were assigned to be air-dropped on the island and take out all the Japanese snipers who were killing the Americans.

 Dewey Harris knew it was a suicide mission.

“Because if I had went, I wouldn’t have been coming back. There weren’t any of us coming back. Their snipers were cutting our men down. We couldn’t shut them down.

“That bomb that went off over there (on Japan), it saved my life,” this 90-year-old vet explained. With the atomic bomb dropped that day, all orders were changed.

He and the other MPs on this mission came home safe.

Ed had heard this story many times, so he spoke up about all his dad’s talent as a marksman before the war. “He killed two squirrels with one shot back in Missouri. He learned from his dad, and Dad was a good shot.

“But after the Columbine tragedy in 1999, Dad took all of his guns and gave them away to his brother in Missouri. He just didn’t want any one to use his guns for such a tragic action ever again.”

Harris and his wife moved back to Palisade after World War II to become a “peach rancher,” a term the locals called themselves. They bought 34 acres “across the road” from Edna’s parents’ orchard on East Orchard Mesa.

They built a good life in the fruit business as Harris Orchard and Fruit Stand while raising two boys: Ellis and Edward. They stayed active in the Palisade area. Dewey was a volunteer firefighter for 34 years in the Orchard Mesa Fire station closest to their orchards until Edna died in 2008.

Today Dewey and Ed live on the remaining 15 acres of the original family acreage, surrounded by new houses and neighbors living on acres that used to be their orchards.

 They sold the land, “to pay off their debts,” Dewey said, “Because we had to go into debt to buy the land.”

They look across the brown fields to the north across the Colorado River and Palisade end of the Valley at Mt. Garfield before turning their gaze to the familiar images on the east side of the Mesa. 

Ed smiles his constant smile at his father to said, “I love this place.”

Dewey agrees with an answering smile.

Open House Friday at Palisade

Remember “Show and Tell” in elementary school?

The Palisade Historical Society hasn’t forgotten the best way to enjoy learning something familiar, yet new. 

This Friday the members are going to “show” their appreciation and “tell” more about their plans and projects to the community at a St. Patrick’s Day Open House at the History Center at 311 Main Street on Friday, March 15 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Come for a short tour of the artifacts of “local hometown hero who became the first Western Slope U.S. Representative from Colorado” Wayne Aspinall, and see mobile displays of area history events: the coalmining, the railroads, the land sites of the 1920s and ‘30s, the irrigation canal development plus the Roller Dam importance.

Come hear the stories about Palisade families and town changes: the agriculture,, the architecture, the schools, and of course, the Peach Festivals.

And they love to share the stories of Palisade.

Priscilla and Vice-Chairman Bill Beckwith always have friendly banter as they present the history of Palisade’s most noted attraction.

“Everyone knows about our famous event, the Peach Festival, but did you know that it was first called, ‘The Iowa Days Peach Festival’ back in the early 1900s?”

“That’s because a large group of people from Iowa settled here, coming in on the train,” Bill added.

“Yes, yes,” Priscilla agrees with a smile, “and we have pictures.”

Volunteer Director Charlene Weidner looks through the numerous mobile displays of photos and facts until Priscilla pulls out the one she wants. “This is a copy of the banner proclaiming ‘Welcome to Iowa Days’ hung over Palisade’s Main Street. Probably 1904.”

“Or 1905 or later,” Bill says as he examines more closely the artifact. “Palisades National Bank wasn’t built on that corner until 1905.”

Their conversation turned from the Peach Festival to the name and location changes  of the bank from 1905 to today.

Priscilla shows off the historic photos of the bank through the years, then she laughs when she points out, “I wrote its obituary in 2011. When they sold the bank to another company, they had to keep the name of Palisades National Bank.”

Bill chimed in, “That’s because it is easier to change the name of the Town, than to change the name of a bank.

“The founders of the first bank named it ‘Palisades Bank’ before the town was officially established as ‘Palisade.’ So the bank could add the word National to it, but when the new company bought it, the banking commission said they couldn’t change it completely.”

“But they could take a name of a failed bank, if it was available. And that is what they did in 2011. Palisades National Bank moved from Main Street out to a new building on 8^th Street, and became Colorado National Bank.

“So I wrote a nice little obit for PNB, and hung it here in The History Center.” She laughed again.

As a volunteer director and “creative force decorating the window displays and designing the brochures or handouts” at the History Center, Charlene wants every one to come see what the Society is doing. 

“People are curious to come and to see what we are about, and chat.

“Some people want to share with us, . they might want to research something like a picture. They might ask us to do research something.

“Just a social whatever. For Any body. We still have a lot of old people who have never set foot in the door, yet. There are lots of dyed-in-the-wool Palisadians we would like to see come in and show interest in their history.”

She emphasizes that the Society will gather history from any year, anytime period and any related area. “Any time in the 100ish years. We might expand to include Cameo and east Valley because a lot of people don’t identify with Grand Junction. They identify with Palisade.”

Priscilla, one of the original founders of Palisade Historical Society, recalls well how it grew from an idea to reality.

“Really, it started with Leif Johnson with the Chamber of Commerce. He started a discussion group called ‘The History Committee.’

“I was the only one who kept raising my hand.” She laughed her distinctive chortle before continuing, “So I was handed the 501 (C ) (3) non-profit application forms to complete. Bill Talbot helped, and others.

 “We received the non-profit status in 2011, and our accomplishments are growing every year.”

“We have had this Center for only 14-15 months. Everything we have has been attained through the generosity of our donors, sponsors and community members. We are so incredibly thankful.”

Everyone is invited to learn about people and the area’s achievements through the collection of historic artifacts that families and businesses have donated, and to view the newest history displays that Palisade Historical Society is organizing and preserving for future generations.

Palisade resident starting new business

It has been a busy nine months for Brian, Lisa Horn and son Jaxon. Moving to Palisade from North Texas they are probably the Town’s newest residents.

But adjusting to a new home, new city, and another state is not their only new adventure, according to Lisa.

“I have been working and planning at the same time to start a scrapbooking store. I am so excited that this weekend to officially have the Grand Opening for my shop, Lisa’s Scrapbooking Boutique, on Friday, March 8.”

Back in August when her husband Dr. Brian Horn accepted a position as the Secondary Licensure Program Coordinator for Colorado Mesa University's Center for Teacher Education, Lisa spent a week in the Grand Valley looking for their next home.

“I rented a car and drove the entire area. When I came to Palisade, I knew this was the place we wanted to make our home.”

At first she had her hands full with making a home in a new house, being miles away from family and old friends while Brian adjusted to his new job, and 8-year-old son Jaxon became a 3^rd grader at Taylor Elementary.

But this stay-at-home wife and mother is a bundle of energy, and she confesses, “I like to stay busy.”

First and foremost for her is family, so she got involved with her son’s school, completely. “I was at the school almost every day, helping in any way I could.”

Because of her creative spirit she offered to help with decorations and stage sets for the school plays, but her most visible artistic gift was to design the two walls outside the Principal’s office proclaiming, “TAYLOR loves to read.”

Two big hearts outlined with individual photos of the students who complete each level of reading 500 to 1000 minutes outside of class time note the success of these growing readers.

Each reader receives a book, and a small heart sticker placed by her/his name on a facing wall display. She created these in October and the displays will remain until the end of the year, giving each child the motivation to earn a book, a sticker and their photograph for all to see.

Remember, the family had just moved here, moved in, and was still adjusting to the area, the schools, everything, when she began her quest of opening her business in Palisade.

The idea grew out of Lisa’s passion, “I love to scrapbook. I started doing it eight years ago when Jaxon was born.”

“Where we lived in Texas, there were lots of scrapbook stores. Friends and mothers of kids my son’s age would have scrapbook parties. Some Saturday nights we might stay at a friend’s house sometimes until 2 a.m. still scrapping,” she recalled.

So she sought advice from everyone: talking to friends, attaining the legal certifications, looking for the best location, and signing a lease.

“I did my research (when she started thinking about starting her business). I found that most scrapbook stores are gone.” So she saw this as an opportunity to keep busy by combining all her loves: family, photography and scrapbooking.

Lisa couldn’t set a date to open until she had the shop renovated and stocked her supplies.

 “I received my Federal Tax number on Feb. 23. We are open now, but look at everything I still have to do,” the blond-haired energetic young woman said with a smile as big as Texas.

Lisa is constantly in motion, talking and laughing, enjoying every aspect of her new venture. In and out of her store unloading, displaying the items she will sell during the posted hours of 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Jaxon does his homework at one worktable in the shop while she sits, rolls and swivels around in her “signature” chair; a tall, white-and-red leather office desk chair with the familiar crimson “OU” letters.  She laughs and explains why she has an Oklahoma chair in her Colorado store.

“Brian is from southeastern Oklahoma. He went to University of Oklahoma, and we are proud OU fans. This is his favorite chair. He used this chair at every school he taught at. When he took the job at Colorado Mesa University, he didn’t feel it was ‘proper’ to have an OU chair sitting in his CMU office.

“So, now it is mine.” Lisa continues opening new stock and creating signs and displays of her new scrapbooking wares while talking all the time.

She has a moment of seriousness when she explains her main reason for having a scrapbook business. “Coming from a family of five kids, three girls and two boys, I’m the next to youngest. I have only three baby pictures of me. I want to capture every moment of my son’s childhood.

“I want to provide the items and a place to help other people put together important moments through their photos and words, so the memories are not forgotten.”

 With eight years experience and lots of finished scrapbook pages filled with Brian, Jaxon, his cousins and his grandparents as the models, Lisa feels confident that she is ready for this new step in her life.

This Palisade resident and business woman is hard at work getting ready to cheerfully help old and new friends capture their memories and have fun at Lisa’s Scrapbooking Boutique on Main Street, Palisade, after the Grand Opening and ribbon cutting by the Palisade Chamber of Commerce on Friday, March 8 at 3:30 p.m.