Historic Downtown

The old downtown (and new downtown) of Grand Junction is nice because it is south enough of I-70 so that it does not feel so much like an interstate town. The Colorado River and the Gunnison River meet along the southern edge of the downtown area and this convergence gave the town its name. Back when the town was founded the Colorado River was known as the Grand River, but confusion with the Rio Grande motivated the change to Colorado River. You can walk where the two rivers meet at the 5th Street Bridge and the Colorado River Front Trail.

Where the downtown is now was just dirt and sage besides the trees that naturally grew along the river. Settlers used the Colorado to create irrigation ditches to grow corn, wheat, peaches, apples, hay, sugar beets, tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce. They also raised cattle, pigs and chickens. The desert environment made and makes it hard to grow some of these crops but today the fruit orchards are particularly successful.

There is a lot of history and beautiful mountain/desert land in and around the downtown, it is a place worth checking out. It would be a great place to move to open a small business downtown or to buy one of the historic homes.

The Utes where the residents of the area before the white folk pushed them to Utah. There are still a lot of evidence and landmarks named after the Utes. Colorado National Monument, the big red mountains to the south are amazing and a backyard playground for GJ.