Earlier I told the story of the Rifle Reading Club and the wonderful work that group did to get the first library in Rifle located at Glover's Jewelry. The library grew to be a community organization with its own board of directors in the same way that the Rifle Creek Museum evolved. In the depression years the WPA paid for a full time director and Ethel Thurston was hired. A weekly report of library usage was carefully documented in the Rifle Telegram. One week of January 1932, 275 books were distributed and 85 cents was collected in fines. Volunteers that week included Mrs. Ed Webb, Mrs. Homer Tibbett, Miss Mattie Gibson, Mrs. T. H. Hill, Mrs. Vern Lovelace, Miss Lenora Dobbs, Mrs. George Allen, Miss Helen Rhoades and Mrs. Eph Prefountaine.

The library was housed in various places around the town including a house near where Alpine Bank now stands. When the "new" city hall was built in the early 1950s, the library was located in a central room which is now the big downstairs room of the Rifle Creek Museum. The staff was mostly volunteers, including my mother and grandmother. They kept the library open during the evenings. I spent many evenings in my preteen years sprawled on the floor in the junior section. After my retirement from the Navy, I found at least one book which had not been checked out since I had scribbled my name on the card 30 years before. One friend who volunteered in that era shared that, as the library was located directly above the holding tank in the Rifle City Jail, she was occasionally serenaded by inebriated neighbors.

The board of directors included Lenora Heck, Helen Oglesby, and Mattie Fulton, (the Miss Mattie Gibson who had volunteered in 1932). They were very dedicated and worked hard to keep the library in operation and help it grow. New books were rented out for a dollar a week. The funds went to purchase more of the latest books. After the Rifle Library became part of the county system Dee Mobley worked as librarian and later served as a member of the board of directors. Dee told me that her predecessors had developed an enviable collection of books pertinent to local history and interest. That collection is now housed in the Colorado Room at the Rifle Branch Library.

They were also very protective. "Library privileges" in that day and age was literally true. I was snow shoeing with long time Glenwood Springs resident Tillie Fisher early this spring. "Let me tell you about it!" she exclaimed, and shared her story:

She had graduated from the U of Ohio and moved with her husband Rolly to Grand Valley at the instigation of his graduate school professor Tell Ertle. Immediately she was recruited to fill a vacancy in the Grand Valley Schools. She taught 6th grade.

They moved to Rifle in the mid 1950s and she obtained a job as the only woman hired by the company that built the Union Carbide Mill west of town. The job was really boring at first for her as company secretary, until things really got underway. "Time Magazine" came in the Tuesday noon mail and was totally devoured by quitting time. She decided that a library card could really enrich her life and went to apply. She filled out the form and also one for her husband. She was then told that the board would meet and consider the applications that Thursday.

When the library opened Friday, she was the first one in the door. She was told that, although her husband's card was approved, the library board had turned her down because of her unstable employment as a construction worker! Tillie had been banned in Rifle from using the community library!

When I shared her story with some old time friends, I learned that Tillie was in good company. The board in that era had also turned down the newly assigned Methodist minister and his wife.

I shared Tillie's story with long time librarian Gloria Buchheister upon her retirement this March after 23 years of serving the Rifle community. She laughed and told me that she and her family moved to Rifle as construction workers to build the Rifle Gap Dam. They did get approved for one card for the family which included four children, but they could only check out a maximum of two books a week. They ended up driving to New Castle to use the County library.

Finally with pressure from the Rifle City Council, the town library was absorbed into the county system in 1976. Oil Shale impact funds paid for the land where our current facility is located. Residents have to provide only proof of a local address or a card from elsewhere in the state to use the free services. Rifle Library now has 3 paid employees assisted by several volunteers and the Friends of the Library Association.

Our library is bulging at the seams. Computers are available for research, word processing and internet access. A summer reading program involves many of the area youth, and children's reading programs help parents entice their toddlers into a love of reading. Special programs have included Andrew Gulliford's presentation on the Ute Trail on the Flat Tops. A Spanish language section has been developed in the past couple of years. Books on tape make the up valley commute for Rifle residents (many of them construction workers) tolerable. Resources are expanding at an incredible rate.

Our library is a treasury for learning and although we may laugh and cringe a bit at the protectiveness of those who nurtured its growth, we also can thank them for the broad base of knowledge they collected and the institution they worked so hard to establish. It is now a wonderful resource readily available for all of us.

3/9/03