The Grand Junction Y.M.C.A. was championed and helped to construct by businessman William Moyer. The saga of William Moyer was novelized in Dalton Trumbo's (
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The statue is slightly larger than life-sized with Moyer holding a life-ring while children enjoy the swimming pool he built. The boy behind Moyer is the child who drowned in the Colorado River that prompted Moyer to built the swimming pool (Natatorium). Moyer is in typical 1920 American businessman attire of a suit, tie, trousers and hat. The concrete plinth features the original cornerstone from the Y.M.C.A. that Moyer helped to champion and build (it was demolished in the mid-1970s). The location of the statue (now a bank) is the former location of the Y.M.C.A.
"Moyer's turn: After honoring Walker, Grand Junction group looks to next Legend
By Josh Nichols
William Moyer might have been Grand Junction’s most influential businessman in the first half of the 20th century.
His Fair Store on Main Street was well known throughout western Colorado. He started a bank, paid for the college education of countless local youth (including famous screenwriter Dalton Trumbo) and played a role in raising the funds needed to build Douglas pass and Unaweep Canyon Road.
But one gesture of generosity stands out above the rest, and it’s that gesture that will be memorialized for years to come in a statue of Moyer in the heart of his home community.
In 1922, as a result of local youth who had drowned swimming in the Colorado River, Moyer donated $25,000 for the construction of the Moyer Natatorium — the community’s first public swimming pool.
The local “Legends” committee, which recently unveiled a statue on Main Street of former Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Publisher Walter Walker, now plans to unveil a statue of Moyer downtown in October.
The statue depicts Moyer bending over to pick up a young girl in a swimming suit with a floatie around her waist, and a young boy tugging at his coat from behind. The statue symbolizes the opportunity Moyer provided youth in the future and the tragedy of young children who drowned in local rivers in the past.
Moyer is the second of five statues that will be unveiled over the next five years.
Statues to come after Walker and Moyer include:
• Sister Mary Balbina Farrell, who started Grand Junction’s St. Mary’s Hospital in 1895.
• John Otto, whose persistence resulted in the breathtaking sandstone cliffs west of town being forever preserved as the Colorado National Monument.
• Operation Foresight Founders, the group of men who had the vision for the pedestrian-friendly downtown people still enjoy today.
The Legends committee was born out of a group of local people who originally came together a few years ago to gather community support for the creation of a Dalton Trumbo statue. Trumbo, raised in Grand Junction and a graduate of Grand Junction High School, went on to become a famous Hollywood screenwriter.
He also penned a book, “Eclipse,” set in Shale City, a fictional version of Grand Junction.
One of the main characters in the book was based on the real-life Moyer.
Legends committee member Jacquie Chappell-Reid said the group, still on a high from the Trumbo sculpture experience when planning began for future statues, saw Moyer as an obvious choice.
“Because Moyer was the hero of the story of the ‘Eclipse’ book, how could you do a Legends sculpture project without including Moyer?” she said.
Chappell-Reid said it’s no accident that the full-size, if not larger-than-life statues, feature Dalton Trumbo in a bath tub, Walter Walker rotating on a base overlooking downtown and will feature Moyer scooping up a young girl.
The Legends committee wants each sculpture to tell a story, and they want people to be able to interact with them.
The goal through the Legends project, Chappell-Reid said, is to give youth in the community a glimpse of the people who make up the history of the town. The bronzes, the group hopes, will become a downtown walking history tour.
“Who are the people who really developed that community?” she said. “What are their stories?”
William Moyer’s story will hit Main Street in October." (from (
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More information about the actual statue and unveiling may be found at (
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