E39: Palisade’s Surprising Seasonal Agricultural Workers of the Past

JoAnn Rasmussen, Chair of the Palisade Historical Society, takes a deep dive into how past generations of farmers and orchardists in Palisade and the Grand Valley met their ever-present need for seasonal agricultural workers.

We might sometimes feel isolated from international and national events here in Palisade, but the seasonal labor sources for this town have always been driven by outside circumstances. Listen to learn about the fascinating range of people who helped bring Palisade’s agricultural products to market.

Theme Music: Riverbend by Geoff Roper  

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Transcript:

Welcome to the Postcards From Palisade podcast. I’m your host, Lisa McNamara.

Today we’re taking a look back at a unique part of Palisade’s past with JoAnn Rasmussen, Chair of the Palisade Historical Society.

JoAnn returns to the podcast to take us on a deep dive into how past generations of farmers and orchardists in Palisade and the Grand Valley met their ever-present need for seasonal agricultural workers. Hear about who filled these roles, how and why these populations changed over time, and the impact these individuals had on Palisade.

Our conversation owes a huge debt of gratitude to the late Ron Jaynes, longtime Palisade resident, writer, and historian. To quote from Ron’s obituary: “The pride, interest and knowledge [Ron] had of the Grand Valley was vast and his nostalgia was charming and sincere.” Which you’ll soon hear for yourself! 

We also owe a big thanks to Priscilla Walker, current Vice Chair and founding chair of the Palisade Historical Society, for her wealth of knowledge about Palisade.

We might sometimes feel isolated from international and national events here in Palisade, but the seasonal labor sources for this town have always been driven by these outside circumstances.

Keep listing to learn about the fascinating range of people who have helped bring Palisade’s agricultural products to market on today’s Postcard from Palisade.

Lisa: If you could just say something as a test.

JoAnn: Testing, testing. This is JoAnn Rasmussen.

Lisa: Perfect.

JoAnn: Coming to you live from the offices of Lisa McNamara and the Postcards from Palisade.

Lisa: Love it. Yeah, so like we were saying already, both of us have voices that are a little under the weather from. For me, thanks to seasonal allergies and the lovely smoke in the air.

JoAnn: Yep.

Lisa: So we might sound a little different than last time, but really appreciate you coming back and being here again.

JoAnn: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me back. This is fun. I like to do this. Anything that’s history involved and I can do some research and impart knowledge and share things. It’s really pretty cool.

Lisa: Well, I love that. so yeah, today we’re talking about something more, a little more focused than last time. But, a couple months ago I was at a presentation that Priscilla had given to the chamber of commerce members. It was like a lunch and learn. It was all about peaches and orchards and peach farming in Palisade. And she had made this comment that was like, Palisade has always been dependent on labor from outside the Grand Valley. And that really made me want to just dig into this a little bit more and understand, you know, what that meant, why and, just to learn a little bit more about it. So I thought JoAnn would be a great person to start with.

JoAnn: Yay. Well, no, it’s a great question. So Palisade is known for its peaches and its fruit trees. And fruit trees produce one crop each year and the work is seasonal. So for most of the year you wouldn’t need all of those workers. But especially back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, they would need 4,000 to 6,000 people for two to three weeks in August. And with a population of less than a thousand, you’re not going to find the workforce here. Now to be fair, everyone who lived in Palisade and knew, knew someone that worked on the orchards, worked in the orchards, even little kids. So this is before child labor laws and all of that.

And Priscilla Walker is the founding chair of the Palisade Historical Society. She talks about her first job was being a box girl when she was, I think it was five or six. And the incredible thing to think about in an economy like that and with the workforce like that is, every single job was incredibly important. You needed to have the box girl, you needed to have the packers, you needed to have the pickers, you needed to have all of those things fall into place. And for two to three weeks in August, thousands of people were needed to do that.

Lisa: So it’s just physically impossible.

JoAnn: Physically impossible.

Lisa: Even if every single. Every single person came out and worked, you still would be short.

JoAnn: Exactly. You would still be short. When you asked me to research this, and I love researching this, and I love talking about topics that I know all the information off the top of my head, but I also love researching things. And I found a manuscript that we actually have for donation at the Palisade Historical Society that was written by a man named Ron Jaynes, and his last name is J A Y N E S. And he has since passed away. He passed away in 2016. He wrote this first manuscript in March of 2008, and then we did a special edition in October of 2010. And he talks about how there was a unique set of workers that Palisade had during a certain timeframe in the United States that most people don’t even know existed here. And I’m sorry if I’m jumping ahead in the questions that you’re going to ask me, but would you like to know more information about that?

Lisa: Yeah. What I think would be interesting is to talk about who were these people? Because I know that, like you said, there was a specific group that we’re going to talk about, but there were different groups that kind of came in and helped out over the years. And is. I think it’s really interesting how it shifted from maybe like, where did it start?

JoAnn: Right. So that’s a great question. A lot of the workers that came here were white. They were Caucasian, they were migrant workers in that they followed the different migrant streams in the United States. So, back in the late 1900s, I had a job in Des Moines, Iowa, and I worked with migrant farm workers. And there’s, a migrant stream, and you can look it up online. The migrant stream of the United States and where they travel based on what’s being planted and cultivated and then harvested. And back in the early days for Palisade, most of those workers came from other parts of the United States, and they would migrate here during peach season because they knew the work would be here, the money would be here to do that, and then they would move on and do other types of things. Now, current, modern day. Well, and even back in the from the 40s to the 60s we had migrant camps here in Palisade. And at a certain point it switched to workers from Mexico or Central America, South America. But it’s interesting because a lot of times when people hear migrant workers, they don’t think about they just don’t think about them being citizens of the United States that have just moved from place to place to pick fruit.

Lisa: Yeah. Interesting. And that’s really how it started. Right. Dustbowl. Like people started their own farms, couldn’t necessarily support themselves.

JoAnn: Right.

Lisa: And you just start moving to where the work was.

JoAnn: Right. Or you would get people that were in trades, like teachers that would have the summers off and that type of thing.

Lisa: Interesting. Okay. So then moving to this unique group.

JoAnn: Ron Jaynes grew up in Palisade, in the Palisade area. And like I said, this is his manuscript. And it’s absolutely fascinating. It’s available for donation, a $5 donation at the Palisade History Museum. And if I can plug the history museum?

Lisa: Please.

JoAnn: We are at 3740 G Road. We’re down, near the corner of Elberta and the north Frontage road for Highway 6. It’s at 3740 G Road and we’re open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 to 2 or by appointment.

And we actually have a couple displays in the museum about the migrant camps that were there. The CCC camp that was there and then the CCC camp actually was converted to house German prisoners of war. And this manuscript by Ron Jaynes, it’s written really, really well. And he talks about how, in fact, if I could read this, this little section, if that’s okay. So these are the words of Ron Jaynes. It’s called pre-war years in western Colorado.

“In the 1930s and early 1940s, Western Colorado agriculture production was flourishing and the recruitment of labor to grow and harvest those crops was a significant task. There were fruit crops, tomato crops, sugar beat crops and grain crops in the Grand Valley all in need of laborers to produce bountiful crops and harvest. From Palisade to Clifton to Grand Junction and west onto the Redlands and Fruita area, there were fruit crops.

“To illustrate the intensity of just harvesting the peach crop in the Grand Valley, consider that in a full crop season, over 1 million bushels of peaches had to be harvested, packed and shipped in about a two week period. During this hectic time, one could hardly walk on the sidewalks in the town of Palisade due to the people congestion. Throughout the day and night in Palisade, Clifton and Grand Junction there were farm trucks and over the road trucks competing for the roadways, the parking spaces and loading and unloading commitments. There was a constant day and night activity of railroad steam engines assembling loaded ice cooled refrigerator cars into trains and replacing them with fresh empties. The large packing sheds often worked nearly all night long to clear their docks and unloading areas for repeating the same procedures the next day.”

Let’s see. “In the lower valley Fruita area there were sugar beets, row crops and processing tomatoes grown also on critical harvesting schedules. In the area around Delta and Montrose, sugar beets, grain crops, potatoes and processing tomatoes were grown. Cedaredge, Hotchkiss and Paonia grew cherries, peaches, pears and apples. All growers shared the common plight of needing labor to complete successful years. Adequate labor was a large problem and the need was pressing to just meet demand without any additional complications.

“A large complication was looming in the not too distant future.” And then he goes on to say, “I was born in 1940, living in Clifton on the same property where my father was born and a fourth generation member of Western Colorado Families. Just over one year later, the United States entered into World War II as a result of being attacked at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Many of the earliest memories of my life involve World War II because the southern boundary of our family farm was also the northern boundary of the Denver and Rio Grande railroad right of way. I well remember coal fired steam engines pulling flat cars, box cars and passenger cars loaded with the essentials of war. Tanks, half tracks, artillery pieces, trucks, jeeps, munitions and troops. It now seems probable that all these trains also transported German prisoners of war while all of this seemed pretty exciting to me, and my older brother John, I best remember the tears coming into the eyes of our mother with each troop train that passed.”

Lisa: That’s gonna choke me up too.

JoAnn: And now JoAnn is teary, so.

Lisa: Oh, no. that’s really interesting. Like, yeah, different experiences. A kid versus the parent. Picturing her kids there.

JoAnn: The adult. Yeah so there were.

Lisa: We can take a minute.

JoAnn: Take a break? No, it’s fine.

Lisa: It’s really sad.

JoAnn: yeah, so. And he writes really well and it talks about how, “history relates that 1943 was a significant year in the events of World War II, with the German war machine encountering great resistance to their once dominating advances. Stalingrad was surrendered to the Russians and Rommel’s troops in North Africa were defeated by the Allies. For the most part, Russia held all of their German captives.” And so it goes on to talk about. He talks about how the German prisoners of war, let’s see here. He talks about, “Over 450,000 prisoners of war were transported and placed into about 500 separately located camps across the United States. 15,000 POWs were brought into Colorado and located at three principal base camps located near Greeley, Colorado Springs and Trinidad, with 47 satellite camp locations across the state.

“About 1,250 POWs drawn from those were quartered at the Trinidad camp were brought into three Mesa county satellite camps, one in Delta, one in Montrose, and one in Palisade,” which is where modern day Riverbend Park is, which was on the eastern end of the park. And there’s really no remnants that you can see. And I brought some pictures, to show you. They were buildings that were put up and then dismantled and taken away. And the sides of them were canvas, so they weren’t quite tents and they weren’t yurts, but they looked like buildings. And I can show you. I can show you that if you were to look at them from the aerial photos, they just look like really long barracks and buildings, but they were kind of made of canvas with a wood floor and a regular roof.

Lisa: So it wasn’t. They weren’t necessarily moving into the CCC camp that was already existing. Sounds like.

JoAnn: Right

Lisa: okay, so it was a separate thing.

JoAnn: Because already that had already closed by the time, you know, by the time the war started. And he also talks about, so this is an interesting thing to visualize if you’re familiar with Palisade and what Palisade looks like. So, “in 1944, on a warm August Sunday between 11 and 11:30am, a passenger train rolled into a stop at the railroad depot in Palisade, an estimated 80 US Army personnel were the first to exit the train. Then an approximate count of 250 German prisoners of war disembarked and lined up four abreast. Flanked by the army personnel, the march began on Second Street to Main Street, then south toward Eighth Street. The sidewalks were lined with anticipating townsfolk of all ages, and the army guards were closing each intersection as the marching column proceeded.

“Sitting at the curb on the corner of Main Street and Third Street, watching the passing POWs, was teenager George Distefano, along with his pals Jim Vancil, Johnny Spangler and Pete Trujillo. George recalls that as the POWs marched, many were singing reportedly at the top of their lungs, while quite a few were quiet and appearing to be very uncertain as to their fate. George cannot explain why this would be so memorable to him as he tells of his simple and distinct memory of a POW looking to the side and studying a local man taking a drink of water from the outside fountain across from the Palisade Bank.

“As the POW newcomers to town marched along, a unique event, unlikely ever to be repeated was now cast into our western Colorado and local history. Replication of this same experience was being etched into the historical account of many locations across the width and length of the entire United States. Sunday services were being held at the Palisade Baptist Church with windows opened wide to chase a breeze through the church, and the marching column passed directly alongside and beneath those windows. Both Sharon Keeney (Wertz) and Leroy Wertz were in attendance. Both reported that the Germans were singing loudly. Both reported that services were delayed, and both told of how long the delays seemed to be after the powerful singing of the POWs had dimmed and the services were continued.

“Harry C. Talbott, about 10 years of age, was also in attendance at the Baptist church. Recalling the interruption of services, Harry described his bewilderment at watching the POWs marching in goosestep, the classic German military march step that he had witnessed for the very first time. The column of POWs and Army personnel proceeded to 8th Street, then toward the river bottom land where the once CCC camp, now suddenly a German prisoner of war camp, was located.”

And then, it says, “as reported by Harold Zimmerman in his article, ‘Harvesting Peaches with German Prisoners of War,’ printed in Mesa State College’s Journal of the Western Slope, sometime around 1980, the structures and grounds had not been maintained and had not been prepared for the POW occupancy. The POWs immediately began the task and by nightfall the facility was habitable.”

Lisa: Wow, that’s amazing.

JoAnn: they built it.

Lisa: Yeah. So 250 people came in.

JoAnn: They specifically came to help with harvest because our men were over there fighting and or had been captured. These men were prisoners of war and we needed labor. So they, they were sent here.

Lisa: And these are just regular people, right? These are just like, a regular everyday person.

JoAnn: They are so. Yeah. In fact, he talks some more in the manuscript about how a lot of them were teenagers. Teenagers, early 20s. Because by the time. By the point of time in the war when this was, the older men had been killed.

Lisa: Wow.

JoAnn: And so these were the men who were forced to fight for their country to do what they were doing. They weren’t the masterminds of the war. They weren’t. They weren’t the violent offenders. They weren’t. Not that…

Lisa: anybody in a war is somewhat violent.

JoAnn: but you know what I mean, they were. They were the equivalent of our guys that were captured and being held over there. And there’s another really funny. A really funny story. Oh. But before I get to that, they were actually paid. The POWs were paid.

Lisa: Oh really?

JoAnn: So, “one of the articles of the Geneva convention allowed that POWs could be utilized as labor source for the hosting country with an exception noting that officers could not be forced to do labor but at their discretion could work if they chose. The standard pay for a POW day of labor was 80 cents. payable by the United States government in either ‘canteen script’ or into individual savings accounts. The United States government was then to be compensated by the growers or employers at a rate commensurate to the prevailing pay rate for the job function.” And so they would be paying. They would be paying the people who came anyway. So in essence they’re paying the POWs to work. But it’s going through the United States government for them paying the POWs to work.

Lisa: Okay. So they weren’t paying in addition.

JoAnn: They weren’t paying in addition.

Lisa: Okay.

JoAnn: They were paying what they would have normally paid.

Lisa: what’s 80 cents then. What do you think that would be now?

JoAnn: I don’t know. I would have to look that up.

Lisa: I feel like I want to Google that What year was that? I want to Google it real quick.

JoAnn: So this would be 1944, I think.

Lisa: 1944 today. Live Google.

JoAnn: Yeah, 1944. We’ll ask the oracle.

Lisa: $14.50.

JoAnn: A day.

Lisa: Yeah, a day. Not a lot of money.

JoAnn: Not a lot of money. But better than nothing. And when you think of prisoners of war, you think of, you know, people in a chain breaking rocks with, you know, at that time. And they were treated really well. They really were treated. They were treated well. So this section talks a little bit more about the payment. So, “Larry Clark, then a teenager, was involved with his family fruit harvest and reports that they did provide some additional lessons in the way of our US economy by the use of incentives.

“Larry stated that their POW workers were mandated to pick a minimum of 70 bushels of peaches daily, for which they were paid the standard rate of 80 cents per day. If a POW exceeded the 70 bushels per day required, he could earn, paid directly to him, an additional 5 cents per bushel picked. Another twist of the system involved the hiring of the army guard to work in the shed and dump peaches onto the grader…” Because all of these were things that you would have to do in the harvest, right? You’ve got, you’ve got the pickers, and then you have to. You put them on a grader, which then decides, you know, the sizes.

Lisa: yeah, sorts out based on sizing.

JoAnn: “…starting them along their way to the sorting and packing process. This, of course, required that the guard would virtually abandon his army duties. But the POWs, with the incentive of earning bonuses themselves, had little reason to even miss the guards.” So they’re working as fast as they can, trying to pick the peaches so that they can earn the extra 5 cents a bushel.

And then, let’s see, there’s this. So this, I think, is a funny little anecdote that he talks about. so these army guards weren’t necessarily from here either. The army guards are coming, you know, coming from wherever they had been stationed. And so they talk about. He talks about an army guard who happened to be a farm boy from Kansas. And let’s see, he talks about how, “at the East Orchard Mesa Peach Ranch…” we’ve talked about peach ranches. What I think peach ranches remind me of…little peaches on legs!

Lisa: Little peaches with legs!

JoAnn: Look at the little critters. Yes. let’s see. “At the East Orchard Mesa Peach Ranch of Elmer Rice, about 25 POW pickers were guarded by a single army guard who happened to be a farm boy from Kansas. Two of Elmer’s sons, Jerry and Mickey, relate that things went well in part because of the POW’s presence and in part because the crop was looking good and prospects were positive. Jerry was working around the packing shed and Mickey drove the tractor between the operations area and the orchard. Jerry reports that Mickey was ‘always an inquisitive and curious boy and he had a real interest in the rifle carried by the army guard.’

It seems that the Kansas farm boy army guard was homesick for some farm work. So he proposed that Mickey could play with the rifle if Mickey would let him drive the tractor. A deal was made. The army guard immediately took off on the tractor and Mickey immediately began to disassemble the rifle, numerous times. Jerry related that he was very gratified that nothing out of the ordinary happened during the duration of that trade because, quote, the guard who would have had to use the rifle was driving all around the property and orchard while the 10 year old boy with the rifle always had it broken down into parts.”

Lisa: That’s so funny. That’s amazing.

JoAnn: And then another thing they talk about that I didn’t think about because I didn’t grow up around picking peaches and that type of thing. I grew up around tasseling corn and all of that which has its own, its own set of challenges. But they talked about how the prisoners of war like to work without their shirts on. And the prominent variety of peach was the standard Elberta. And if you’re familiar with the Palisade area, Elberta, the name, the name of one of the major streets here is named after that peach. “It was well known as an especially fuzzy variety,”

Lisa: I’m itching already, I’m sorry.

JoAnn: “causing a notable and uncomfortable amount of scratching and itching.”

Lisa: I can feel it.

JoAnn: “There are many experienced peach pickers who shudder at this mention. And I among them, as I understand, there were many quick dips in the canals which could only temporarily assist with the fuzz discomfort factor. When asked if there were any problems with the POW labor or attitude, they replied, none. And it’s a good thing because the guards spent a great deal of their time in the packing shed trying to get acquainted with the girls who did the packing.”

Lisa: I mean, can you imagine you’re going from like warfare, that you were forced to do, to like come to Palisade. And it must have felt like quite the. I mean it must have felt like a good trade

JoAnn: right?

Lisa: If you had to do something.

JoAnn: I can only, I can only imagine the uncertainty that they felt on, you know, so many trains to get here. And then you get here and you’re like, what what is this? How are we even going to be treated? And then to be treated well. And there are people who don’t even know that this happened in Palisade, that they were here. And then you’ve got, a faction of people that hear this happened and assumed that they weren’t treated well. And it’s like. But that’s not true. They really were treated well, if anything, for that karmic sense of our guys are over there.

Lisa: Exactly.

JoAnn: And we would hope that they’re being treated with respect, even though they were fighting for different sides. So it’s just amazing. In fact, one of those about just, the uncertainty of where they were coming. And there are various versions of this story, but it all boils down to there were guys that tried to escape and they made it as far as Loma or Mack and thought they’d made it to California because they didn’t understand the geography of the United States, how vast it is compared to where they’re coming from. You know, over there, where if you’re on a train for however long, you’re going to get a little farther. Right. Or at least not farther, but into a different country.

Lisa: Sure.

JoAnn: then one other little story I want to share that doesn’t have really anything to do with this, but it is fascinating to me. Again, these are the words of Ron Jaynes. “This was the first time in my life that I had my first memory of peanut butter. Dad brought home a glass 1 quart jar, unlabeled, as I recall, of peanut butter. The contents were separated with the top third being oil and the bottom two thirds being solid. To prepare it for eating, one had to stir the contents until it was the same consistency throughout. I do remember that it was good in a sandwich alone, but superb with some of Mom’s peach marmalade or jellies was added. Looking back, I now realize that jar was government issued, intended for the POWs. In my father’s defense, I contend that the statute of limitations has expired.”

And then it says, “with the surrender of Germany and United States and allies moving rapidly to locate and free all Allied forces who were captured and held in enemy prison camps, not only was it a glorious event for all who regained their freedom, their families and their nations, it also allowed the United States government opportunity to revisit the standards by which we provided for those captured enemy troops we still held. The featured standards to encourage our enemies to treat our soldiers being held prisoner in equivalent manner as we treated theirs began an evolution and the availability of certain foods decreased with some and increased with others. In the words of one unknown US-held German prisoner of war, ‘we were suddenly hit by an avalanche of peanut butter.’”

And then he talks about how his grandfather, John Walker, “took his vacation during the peach harvest so that he could come from eastern Colorado and drive the team of horses to haul in the pack fruit. And that he was raised in the Gunnison area and as a young man worked as a cow hand and a ranch hand and drove 4 team hitch ore wagons from the mines above the Aspen area into town and delivered the silver ore to the mill. And he was reveling in his past as he drove the team hauling our peaches.”

And that brings up another point. A lot of the other workers that they would have in town were miners. So they would be in the mines in the winter when the need for coal was greatest here in Palisade, because Palisade had about 15 mines in the BookCliffs. The north you know the northern palisades around. Around here. So miners would work with the peaches as well. But again, like we talked about, there weren’t 4,000 people in the valley to do that.

Lisa: Even with the 250. 250 German POWs, that still doesn’t really even scratch the need. Right. So they must have still had others that they needed to try to pull in during that time, or did they just make it work with what they had?

JoAnn: I still think they pulled in people from elsewhere. I mean, that was just, you know, the 250 people, the POWs. But then you would have, if they hadn’t been called to war, you know, those families would be. Would be migrating here and doing that.

Lisa: so you’d still have internal migrants. Going back to the German POWs, did you, have you heard of anybody who stayed here or who came back? Like did anybody marry any local girl or anything like that?

JoAnn: I think there was, there was one that got married. I don’t have that information. And then we did get. We have some copies of some letters at the, at the history museum of German POWs that wrote later and were asking to be sponsored because they love. They loved it here so much. And then there was Ron Jaynes does mention one that escaped and finally came forward decades later.

Lisa: Oh wow. Was just hiding out locally?

JoAnn: According to the manuscript. Yes. So but again if you could blend in, you know, blend into society.

Lisa: What do we know about the local residents’ reaction to hosting a POW camp here?

JoAnn: As far as I know they were welcomed and he does talk about there were some women with the church groups that made sure that they were fed well and all of that. And again some of that is with the Geneva Convention like it was required. And honestly having people come and pick your peaches has been such an integral part who Palisade is that they were just as welcoming to the POWs being an extra set of hands to pick as they are to all the migrants that come now. And as you know, I mean you live here. We’re very welcoming and open to those workers because it’s such an important part of the process.

Lisa: Can’t happen without them.

JoAnn: No, it really can’t. And I know you had asked about some of the, the migrant cabins that are on the western side.

Lisa: Yeah. So that, so that’s different. I’m learning right now. It’s different.

JoAnn: It’s different. Yeah.

Lisa: Interesting. Okay, so that was more of the old CCC camp or like. Or what? No, you tell me.

JoAnn: So where the POWs were, that was on the eastern side. That’s where the CCC workers came. And those workers also helped pick peaches when they were, you know, when that was the season for that. They helped line the canals with the cement. They also helped build the facilities up at Land’s End. So you’ve got the bathroom, the restrooms up there and you’ve got that structure that’s up there. They helped build that. They helped build the roads at the monument. So you know they helped all around the area. And so when they were trying to figure out what to do, you know we’ve got these able bodied men who can help and Palisade has a need where would we put them? And so it was like oh we’ll put them where the CCC camp was. That’s what we’ll do. So that was on the eastern end. And then like I said, those were more mobile, mobile facilities. So those were just dismantled and or destroyed at the end of that.

Lisa: So just temporary housing.

JoAnn: Just temporary housing

Lisa: like basic shelter over the summer.

JoAnn: Right. Then on the western side, I think there were about 200 of them. 200 cabins and I’m using that term loosely. It looks like a little shed and I think Carboy actually has one on property that you can see and there are some others that are located, you know, around.

Lisa: I think that Restoration has a couple but yeah Carboy’s you can actually walk into because they use it as a band stage.

JoAnn: Yeah you can see. And it again there were 200 of them down there. And then they also had they had a clinic that worked down there. They had a community area, they had a bathhouse. They had all of, all of that type of thing because they’re very basic shelter.

Lisa: like running water or no?

JoAnn: No, no running water. They were just the cabins on those slabs. So if you’re hiking out there, if you are on the western side of Riverbend, there is a sign out there that is in desperate need of being redone.

Lisa: Yeah. If anybody wants to sponsor something.

JoAnn: Gee. Yes. I wonder what. Yeah, I wonder who we could talk to about that. So it is on our radar. I don’t even know that it’s the historical society’s responsibility necessarily for that

Lisa: Yeah but somebody could donate to fund it!

JoAnn: But somebody could get that going. But Yeah. So the sign definitely needs to be fixed up and then you can see the cement platforms that are. That are still in there. For people who were truly migratory in that they didn’t have a permanent home, it’s better than living in your car. And the community around that. I can only imagine how wonderful that community was. I mean they’re working incredibly hard, incredibly long hours. They’re there to get a job done and. But you’ve got that sense of community where you’re living in all of those and you’ve got little kids so you’ve got your whole family is there sometimes too. And that’s a little different with how some of the migrant workers are now. Some of the migrant workers, they come up here without their families and they send their money back. This. The whole family would travel. So there were people who would watch the little kids during the day if you weren’t, if you weren’t quote old enough to help.

Lisa: Yeah so if you were like 4? 3?

JoAnn: And then child labor laws kind of came in, you know, ruined everything. No, just kidding. This is recorded. I should be careful when I say I’m kidding. Child labor laws are very important. She says while laughing. But yeah, and so those are, those are no longer there.

Lisa: So that. So the west end of the park was truly a camp for migratory workers.

JoAnn: Yes.

Lisa: It wasn’t. They didn’t. It wasn’t mixed. It wasn’t like, you know, they didn’t use the same camp or whatever. That’s so interesting. I did not realize that. I thought it was all in the same place.

JoAnn: Yeah. And like you said, there’s no running water, but with that there. These sheds are very basic. So it wouldn’t be hospitable in the winter. Like you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t do that. And now every season is a little different. So. And we have a chart at the Palisade History Museum that shows how many carloads, you know, train carloads of peaches were sent out. And you can tell based on the weather and kind of what happened during which season.

So some seasons they wouldn’t need 6,000 workers for two weeks because let’s say it was a smaller. It was a smaller season. So you could stretch. You could use the same amount of workers to prune and this and that. And it could be stretched over the season, but in the bumper crop years. I mean imagine, imagine 3,000 people in Palisade and it not. I mean we have the farmers market and we have things like that that bring a lot of people to town. But imagine that every day all day.

In fact, that’s one of the reasons why the public restroom is where it is. So that public restroom was built in the 40s specifically because we had so many migrant workers coming through that you needed a place for them to do that. So that, so the restrooms, those have been there since the 40s.

Lisa: Interesting.

JoAnn: They’ve been revamped.

Lisa: so yeah. Could people just get off the train right there?

JoAnn: Well, we had a stop. Yes.

Lisa: Right. So there was a station, right?

JoAnn: Yep. Yeah. So the, the depot is where those long white buildings are now for the for the train. All the train stuff. We’ve got some pictures of all of that at the historical society too. Yeah, Palisade was a stop. So, yeah, that’s where they. When he was talking about the German prisoners of war, they would have gotten off there. Right there kind of by, you know, Second and Main-ish.

Lisa: Then so going back to the migrant park. So we know the CCC camp which turned into the German POW Camp. We know why that ended and when. but for the migrant portion of the housing, when did that stop being needed and why? Because obviously it’s not still there today.

JoAnn: Right. So I will give a shout out to Priscilla Walker. She’s the founding chair of the Palisade Historical Society. I reached out to her when I was researching this because she knows a lot of this information. And like I said, I’m just learning all of this. I’m researching all of this too. So let’s see. we were talking about. We talked a little bit about the child labor laws, right? So, and that kind of all feeds into when all of this stuff kind of started to shift.

So, “before the child labor laws were changed, most teenagers worked in the harvest to earn spending money for the things their parents did not want to buy for them. And the schools even delayed starting when the harvests were late, as teenagers from all over the valley would come to Palisade to earn the spending money. In the 60s, that stopped as they passed a law that fruit could not be shipped interstate if kids were not in school during harvest.”

So now you’ve taken some of your labor, you’ve taken away some of your workforce. So, “kids who didn’t work for their parents orchard would go to school and then work in the packing sheds until 10 or 11 at night.” So they would still work. “Fruit must be shipped at just the right time to arrive at stores as they ripen. And the harvest dates change with every variety and weather conditions.”

And like I had mentioned, “in the first half of the 20th century, most of the harvest workers were white. We have information in the museum about a book written, about the Depression where the family was in Gunnison in 1933 and heard that Palisade needed workers and came here for the harvest. And then they lived in the area until World War II began. And we’ve got photos and information from a woman whose parents were teachers.” Like we mentioned, that type of migrant work.

“The marketing order passed in 1923, established the Peach Board of Control, which also advertised for harvest workers and helped ensure a supply. The migrant labor camp at the west end of Riverbend was built in 1941 with 200 cabins to house seasonal labor and their families. In 1943, it housed a population of more than 800. In addition to the cabins, there was the basketball court, horseshoe pits, clinic, bathhouse, community center. And then local physicians offered free health care.” So, “for truly migrant workers who otherwise would be living in their cars or tents, this was a better place.” And again, I mentioned it included daycare for the young children. “And churches readily offered help, to the residents and their families. Fruit grower wives, including Dorothy Power, Margaret Talbot, Ruby Toothaker, started the child and migrant services, which continue to operate today as La Plaza.”

“In 1961, the labor camp was closed by the federal government, forcing growers to find alternative housing for increasingly hard to find workers. A number of cabins were bought by growers and moved onto their property to house the workers they still needed, because they would no longer have access to the migrant camp housing and its benefits.”

Lisa: Do we know why the federal government mandated it to be closed?

JoAnn: I don’t know for sure, but if I had to guess, I mean, you’ve got 200 cabins there. You don’t have running water. You don’t, I mean, I don’t know what standards shifted.

Lisa: Interesting.

JoAnn: And, and then it kind of fell back onto the growers to provide that housing.

Lisa: So you went from kind of like a shared pool of resources to every individual farmer has to provide their own housing for their own workers in the 60s.

JoAnn: Right. Along that same time is when. So we had like the United Fruit Growers association, we had those farmers co-ops that would deal with the marketing of the fruit and the shipping of the fruit and all of that. And the farmers would, or the orchard. The orchardists would buy into that program, like how a normal farmers co-op works. Because when you’re a grower, you want to focus on what your talent is.

Lisa: Sure, yeah.

JoAnn: Right? A fantastic grower may not be the best marketer. Right. And so Palisade was really kind of known for that, having that community, that co-op type way of doing things. So you’ve got the co-ops, you’ve got the place where the migrant workers can stay. You’ve got, you know, all of this kind of happening as a community. And then in the 60s, 70s, things just kind of started to split out and it’s like, well, no, now there’s no longer the United Fruit Growers association. There’s no longer the co-op. So now the grower is responsible for. And we no longer ship them by rail from Palisade.

Lisa: Right, and there’s no longer a station here.

JoAnn: So now, now the grower has to figure out how am I going to get my workers, how am I going to house my workers, how am I going to market my fruit, how am I going to transport my fruit, how, how am I going to do of that? And there’s pro, there’s pros and cons to all of that. If you, if you were a grower that wants to be responsible for all of that, and can really be successful at that, that’s fantastic. And if you’re a grower who can’t, then that, that’s a different type of challenge.

Lisa: I was curious about that whole thing too. Like why did the co-ops end? Almost like with a shift in societal structure that I don’t know enough to even talk about, but seems like that was part of the reasoning for why everything started to change here.

JoAnn: Right. And with anything. And I haven’t really researched that. I’ve heard people talk about it and I’ve heard people, having differing views talk about it. And so you always get, “well, this is why they did it.” And then you’re talking to someone else, “No, this is why they did it.” It’s like, well, they did it, you know, I mean it came to an end.

Lisa: What haven’t I asked you about? You hit on a lot of my questions already just in the normal course of our conversation.

JoAnn: Because I babble on and on.

Lisa: No, because you’re prepared.

JoAnn: Well, I mean the CCC camp was built in 1935. It’s amazing to think about how Palisade has always dealt with thousands of people for short amounts of time. And because sometimes I think people think that’s a new thing

Lisa: with festivals

JoAnn: the festivals and all of that. And it isn’t a new thing. It’s been a thing forever. And that’s good and bad. We obviously need to address, to address some issues, but having an influx of people has always been a challenge. Now, granted, the workers are here and they’re doing a specific task, and then it’s done. But, that’s interesting to me, and I was absolutely fascinated to find out that there was a German prisoner of war camp here. And when you hear that, like, the things you think in your head when you first hear that are different than what the reality was.

Lisa: It’s not like a prison.

JoAnn: Right. Right. And then when you pick it apart, you’re like, well, why did I think that? Like, it would be just the same as if I found out that a whole group of Palisade guys were kept on a farm in Germany or wherever, you know, working on a farm. And you would hope that they would be treated well and not all. Not all prisoners were treated well and not all, you know, all of that.

Lisa: Where did they go when they weren’t here? Were they just moved around to different parts of the country where needed?

JoAnn: They were just moved around. Yeah. Where needed. Because again, with that migrant stream. So you’ve got, you know, apples are picked on a different schedule, cabbages are picked on a different schedule. These are like, everything is kind of picked on a different growing season. And then where were they when they weren’t doing that? I don’t know. That. I have no idea.

Lisa: What is this, historic Palisade coloring book?

JoAnn: Oh, yes. Okay. So this is a book that all second graders at Taylor Elementary get. And then, usually in the spring, we go and we do a presentation for them. So we show them, like, these are what the stilts look like. And this is really what coal is and that type of thing. This is interesting because Ron Jaynes did most of the drawings for this book. So he never considered himself to be an artist,

Lisa: I disagree!

JoAnn: despite the fact that these are really, really good. He considered himself to be a doodler. He liked to doodle. So his doodles are all through this book. And. And he talks about. So it’s a book to help elementary school kids understand kind of the history of Palisade and kind of what goes into that. And so it shows, you know, a man on stilts pruning, and he drew that. That’s by Ron Jaynes. And then you’ve got the picking sack. Oh, that’s another funny story that he has in his manuscript trying to teach the German prisoners of war how to use. So the peach packing sack was actually invented in Palisade by George W. Bowman, who happens to be Priscilla Walker’s grandfather.

Lisa: Oh cool.

JoAnn: We have a copy of the patent at the history museum. He designed this peach packing sack to gently hold the peaches while you’re picking. And he designed it when he got the idea when he was watching his wife pick peaches with her apron. She’d pull up her apron and she would put peaches in. And so you put straps around your neck and then these unclip and then it kind of opens up like a tube, so to speak, and you can gently release the peaches into your basket or your barrel. Obviously I did not want to read the whole thing because that would be boring.

Lisa: Well, we have to give people an incentive to come in and buy that.

JoAnn: I know, I can’t find it right now. But he, said, he said basically “they handed out the peach packing sacks just assuming they would know how to put it on. Some of them put them on like a skirt because they’re open when the bottom clips up.” People listening, are like, what are you talking about? It’s like it looks like a big bag that you’ve clipped up the ends, but it’s all open when you, unclip it, then the peaches can fall through into whatever you’re doing. So, “some of them put them on like a skirt. Some of them were trying, like they were just trying to figure it out. When they finally figured it out was it was absolutely hilarious.”

Lisa: I can see trying to wear that as a belt too around your neck, maybe that happens.

JoAnn: But it leaves your hands free so that you can pick. And a lot of times people see the stilts and they think people picked on stilts and they really didn’t. They, they did more pruning on stilts because you need to prune the whole tree. You don’t have to, you don’t have to get down every few minutes and empty your peach, your peach sack. So you had to be kind of more, more mobile. And he has a picture of people making boxes by hand. He’s got a fruit picker. And these are available too, for a donation at the museum. And then we give them to. So a, generous donation has allowed us to give them to Taylor Elementary students so that they can use this in their. Their local Palisade history section.

Lisa: It’s really just fascinating to think about. I mean as you know, think about all the people we’ve been here in the past and all the ways that people have had to be creative to just get the job done and get the harvest done.

JoAnn: And it’s intense. And I grew up on a farm, so I understand that part of it. It’s different. It’s different than you know, peach packing, but it’s the same idea that you are up sometimes before the sun, you’re working all day and you have this timeline that has been given to you by Mother Nature. Like you just. You have to get it done and you have to get it done in the time that you have and. Yeah. And I can’t imagine 6,000 people here every day, all day, all night, for even, you know, two or three weeks in August.

Lisa: Oh, I did think of something else though, that reminds me. So when I was reading some of the stories in the Palisade Tribune, which is available on the website.

JoAnn: Yes.

Lisa: Which you can plug. Real quick.

JoAnn: Oh yes, our Palisade. Real quick. Oh dear. Can I do real quick. Our Palisade Tribune was our newspaper of record from June 1903 until they ceased publishing March of 2014. So the Palisade Historical Society has been digitizing the physical copies, with Colorado Historic newspapers collection through the Colorado State Library. And those are being put in a free searchable database, which is a gigantic time suck. I mean wonderful resource for researching. But, Yes. So what about your?

Lisa: Well, so when I got into a total rabbit hole looking at articles about the CCC camps and it seemed like there, so to your point of having 6,000 people in town. There were a lot of things that the heads of the camp or different people in town would organize different events for people. So like dances, something like there is an event set up for the ladies to go visit the CCC camp and like the women of town.

JoAnn: Oh, dear.

Lisa: And just like you know tour it and.

JoAnn: Right. Well, it, in his manuscript, he talks about how, you know, an officer finds a wife or that type of thing. Because they weren’t just there. I mean, they were there to see the soldiers too. You know, everybody working.

Lisa: Everybody was curious. Right. It seemed like so I wonder if there were. Do we know anything about from the CCC time, if anybody from that era kind of stayed here and settled and became part of the community.

JoAnn: Became part of the community that I don’t know. That I don’t know specifically.

Lisa: it was long enough ago.

JoAnn: And I don’t know. I don’t even know exactly where all those workers came from either. They could have been. Some of them could have even been local already.

Lisa: Just from reading yeah, from. From reading the stories. It just sounds like they came from. It just seemed like such an effort to staff these camps or, you know, populate them and then move them around the country too, because they also moved around the country. So, they would say, oh, the boys from. You know, in the old language of the article. The boys from Nebraska are going to be coming this week and let’s welcome them.

JoAnn: Right.

Lisa: And then there’s. Then everybody was sad when they were leaving. They’d be like, oh, we miss their smiling faces. They wrote us, you know, they wrote Mrs. Blah Blah Blah a letter and said they really miss her or just like it was really adorable.

JoAnn: Right. Well, it goes back to that sense of community too.

Lisa: Right.

JoAnn: You know, you’ve got your locals, but then you’re also welcoming people that are here to do a job. They’re here and now you’re part of Palisade.

Lisa: Right.

JoAnn: And then you’ll move on. But you always take that little part of Palisade with you.

Lisa: That’s. That’s a really beautiful note to wrap it up on, I think. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. I appreciate Priscilla and Mr. Jaynes, a definitely invaluable contributor to this conversation. So thank you so much.

JoAnn: No, thank you so much for having me.

Lisa: If you’re interested in learning more about the history of seasonal agricultural workers in Palisade and the Grand Valley, visit the Palisade History Museum, where you can also find copies of ‘Colorado Peaches and German Prisoners of War’ by Ron Jaynes, which was written in 2008 based on interviews Ron conducted of residents who worked with German Prisoners of War in the summers of 1944 and 1945. There you can also find copies of the ‘Historic Palisade Coloring Book.’ Both are available for suggested donations of $5 each. 

In the next episode, I’ll be talking with Iriana Medina, Executive Director of La Plaza Palisade, about how the H-2A visa program helps provide the seasonal agricultural labor to meet the needs of today’s farmers, orchardists, and grape growers. That episode will be out in two weeks.

Before we go, here’s a bonus story from JoAnn, courtesy of Ron Jaynes’ publication:

JoAnn: And then he talks about the very first time he rode in a Jeep and that was August of 45. He “was nearing five years of age and there were eight German prisoners of war out in the Clifton orchard picking the peaches. While our mom was occupied with the efforts of harvest and packing our crop, my brother John and I had a few tasks assigned and I am positive that John tended to his with far more enthusiasm than I dedicated to mine. As would have been quite typical for me, staying out of the way, not being underfoot and staying low profile was my ultimate goal, not doing those meaningless little tasks. This also allowed me more time to take notes on other events, like the army jeep with a white star on the hood which drove into the yard daily. Driven by an officer, it went past the packing shed and out into the orchard. Soon it would return, zip past the packing shed and be gone. I decided that I wanted a ride in that Jeep.

“Not exactly in keeping with my low profile philosophy, but the variety of this idea seemed to be acceptable to me. Since the only place the jeep stopped was out in our orchard, that would be where my dream ride had to start. The following day, as I anticipated and expected, the Jeep came into the yard and drove out into the orchard. I ran through the middle of the orchard and into the midst of the POW pickers. Some picking from six foot ladders, some picking from the ground. I was first noticed by the POWs and recall their grins and some jabber amongst themselves. Then I was noticed by the guard. The guard shouldered his rifle on its sling and walked along the peach rows to reach me, picked me up and carried me out of the orchard into the Jeep, sitting me into the passenger seat.

“I sat alone in the Jeep for a short period of time, but soon we were on our way over the orchard trail that I followed daily on foot alongside the head ditch and passed about 30 rows of peach trees approaching the plum tree, turning the corner at the big tree with the tire swing, past the horse corral, the old cellar where Grandma Jaynes kept the smelly apple vinegar, past the smokehouse where the aroma of smoke cured meat lingered year round and the garage, a corn crib to the barn and packing shed, where for the first time I can recall that army Jeep stopped in the yard.

“A vivid memory of this ride was the amount of dust that swirled around us as we traversed the orchard trail, a ride of about 300 yards, and in not much more than three minutes, my mission accomplished. I do not remember what was particularly thrilling, and possibly I was interested in the motorized vehicle running in the orchard because we still carried our crop out of the orchard with a wagon and a team of horses driven mostly by our Grandfather Walker. Looking back indicates that I was probably more excited with the planning of my ride than I was in experiencing it. I didn’t get to honk the horn or touch the steering wheel or the gear shift or examine the carbine mounted on the dash, or even slap the spare tire and gas can hung on the back. At the end of the ride, the driver and my mom had a short conversation, But I do not recall that I was even remotely in trouble for my actions. At any rate, I guess my thirst for a Jeep ride was quenched and I did not try it again.”

Lisa: The podcast’s theme music is Riverbend by Geoff Roper.

Thanks for listening. With love, from Palisade.