Photographer Goodman wields camera for outlaws and Indians

Creator: Goodman, Charles, 1843-1912 Date:1886
September 8. In Ironton (Ouray County), Colorado, people and a dog pose by a log building with signs that read: "B. Ware and I. Steele. Plain Sewing" and "Pawn Brokers Co." Men are in suits with bow ties and watch chains. Women wear box-plaited flounced skirts with draped overdresses, knit shawls, and tight bodices.



 Original Material Found in Collection: C Photo Album 103. Thomas M. McKee album Notes: Condition: masked, emulsion chipped and missing. Formerly attributed to Thomas McKee. Formerly Mc241. Title inked on glass plate. Donor: T.J. McKee

 Gaining trust of outlaws and Indians

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Some photographers – even outlaws and Indians – trusted.

 "More than 1,000 photographers worked in Colorado in the 19th century," writes Carol Johnson in her blog that focuses on the lesser known image makers and their lives and their images. Carol Johnson worked in the Prints & Photographs Division at the Library of Congress for 31 years, specializing in 19th century American photography. 

Pioneer photographer is Charles Goodman is a good example of my point about trust, and outlaws and Indians. And may have been connected in some sense to the idea of alias, and obscurity of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of his photos have come to light in the modern day in the collection of Thomas M. McKee, another frontier photographer he worked with in South-western Colorado.

Charles Goodman was born in June 1843, at Bainbridge, New York, to Abel Goodman and Anna McKinnon Goodman. Goodman may have worked as a photographer in his hometown in the early 1860s.

Later, he lived in Ava, Illinois, before moving to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, where he worked as a photographer, joining forces with H. R. Farr as Farr & Goodman in 1875.
 

Creator: Goodman, Charles, 1843-1912, Date: 1886 Sept
Men wear suits and hats and hold musical instruments including tubas, cornets, trumpets, trombones, and a bass drum in a meadow below the San Juan Mountains near Telluride (San Miguel County), Colorado. Ingram Falls, Bridal Veil Falls and Ingram Peak are in the distance.

By 1880, he was working with his brother, William A. Goodman, as a photographer in South Pueblo and Pitkin, Colorado, specializing in stereoviews. The Goodman Bros. partnership lasted less than a year.

In the 1880s and early 1890s, Goodman worked as a traveling photographer visiting mining towns in southwestern Colorado with his oversized canvas tent. A photograph in a private collection shows his tent, then located in Bonanza, Colorado, with the photographer standing in front. A sign on the tent reads: Views of Bonanza, Exchequer, Sedgwick & Round Mountain For Sale Here.

In 1892, Goodman had a studio in Creede, Colorado, next to Hudlow’s second-hand store. His prints were offered for sale at his gallery, as well as at Mrs. Love’s news depot and the local drug store for thirty-three cents each or three for one dollar. In 1893, Goodman worked in Mancos, documenting local ranches. He remained in Mancos for the remainder of the year before relocating to Bluff, Utah, where he would live for the rest of his life.

In Bluff, Goodman continued his photographic work and also worked on mining claims. He wrote and illustrated “The History of the Oil Fields in San Juan County, Utah.” In addition to his mining views, Goodman photographed the local Navajo population.

Goodman died on February 13, 1912, in Bluff, Utah. He is buried in the Bluff Cemetery. 

Creator: Goodman, Charles, 1843-1912
Date: 1888, July 6, Men and horse-drawn wagons pose by a snow tunnel on the Otto Mears toll road on Red Mountain Pass near Ironton Park (Ouray County), Colorado. Timber debris is mixed with snow in the snowslide. 

Revisiting E.C. Gard, the Crusher, and decendents

Just trying to tell stories and be round

When I returned to Colorado Community Media, I wrote the following column retelling briefly, some of my favorite stories. June 28, 2015  

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Certainly newspapering and telling stories is a circular process. Back in 2007, when I wrote (what I thought at the time) was probably my last column for a certain newspaper, I mentioned the basic truth that, in communities like these, a person never runs out of good stories to tell. Having spent so many years with the same newspaper company, many of them in the Teller County and Monument areas, I have even acquired a few stories of my own. 

I recall spending more than $700 one week to clear snow from the parking lot in Monument (when we were in the building that now houses Expectations Salon) after the October 97 blizzard. Jeremy Bangs and I logged a lot of hours in those days addressing Tribunes by hand and prepping bags for the mail. 

One of the funniest newspaper tales I have ever heard involved having to face the crazed meanness in the eyes of a publisher who had just figured out he only has flats for 34 pages of a 36-page paper when he arrived at the offsite printing facility. I guess that is what happens when rushed and, in haste, you throw completed flats in the back of the pickup where they can be sucked out a crack between the endgate and the topper latch on the way to the printer. 

Not everyone knew of the secret escape hatch through the closet in the editor’s office (and out to the back door) in the stucco house on the corner. I never had an opportunity use it, but still found it comforting in case of an irate advertiser or an enraged reader. I also recall watching out the front window of the Ute Pass Courier newspaper office in Woodland Park, as the police, including local city and county officers, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, FBI and federal marshals, arrested members of the Texas Seven in the Coachlight mobile home park directly to the east of us. 

“No information at this time,” from emergency personnel, was the only explanation offered for the six or seven ambulances and various police cars lined up in our parking lot for a full twenty minutes before they could tell us what was going on. 

It was another media circus, but perhaps more dangerous one to staff and the community, when the Hayman Fire burned out of control for three intense weeks in June of 2002. For members of our staff at the newspaper, the weeks of stress related to intense long-term sustained coverage of a big story was compounded by whether or not their house, or place of employment, or both might burn. And all their friends and neighbors were in a similar predicament. 

But among the “big stories,” was always that small but important thread that needed to be pulled for goodness sake. It seems to me like I followed around in Ernest Chapin Gard’s footsteps – just about 100 years after he first made his appearance in Colorado. I published the Cripple Creek Gold Rush, which was a direct decendent of Gard’s Cripple Creek Crusher. I managed the Tri-Lakes Tribune in Monument and the Palmer Lake area, a century after Gard’s Palmer Lake Herald and Monument Register. I had worked at papers that covered Mono County in California that had ties, and had a friend that edited the paper in Gardnerville, Nevada with links to Gard. All were temporary haunts of the bombastic journalist, newspaper publisher, and mining promoter. For a while there, I thought there was some sort of weird Ju-Ju between me and the guy, 100-years-displaced. 

Then I figured out that this fellow started or promoted a paper in most every promising mining camp in the West. “E. Chapin Guard was at Palmer Lake much of the time between 1888 and 1895,” wrote my friend Daniel W. Edwards in a paper for the Palmer Lake Historical Society in July of 2010. Edwards recently retired from the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. and authored the book Dr. William Finely Thompson: Dental Surgeon and Founder of Palmer Lake. 

“He published Palmer Lake’s first newspaper, served on the first town council, was town attorney, a justice of the peace, filed claims to local mining properties, and wrote a booklet boosting Palmer Lake. Yet, being a restless and ambitious man, Gard could not stay put for long. He established, published, or edited 11 Colorado newspapers during his career, and his articles appeared in at least six others. 

As a roving journalist and newspaper editor in Colorado, Gard often resorted to poetry, humor, and sarcasm in his writings and fully exercised his right to freedom of the press. He did contribute to the dialog of democracy by criticizing public officials, but his unrestrained enthusiasm and often bombastic, intemperate rhetoric also provoked strong opposition. Many newspapers of that era practiced a similar style of journalism.” 

The Mountain Democrat of Placerville, California, had this to say about E.C. Gard, near the end of his colorful career in its June 4, 1926 edition. “Thirty years ago, when new mining camps were constantly springing up in the state of Colorado, each new mining camp had a newspaper that boosted everything from the skies above to what was expected to be found thousands of feet underground, and in most cases the name of the editor was E. Chapin Gard. 

There were two things that Gard could do more of and do better than anyone else in camp, one was write boost articles and the other was to drink good whiskey. He did both constantly and consistently, and helped many men become wealthy but never saved any money himself … E. Chapin Gard, still boosting, with more pep than half the men we meet every day, who has probably been compelled to forget his age in order not to become old, an example of what it means to always look on the bright side, to look for sunshine instead of clouds, to side-step gloom and cultivate happiness and contentment.” 

Of course Gard made enemies, often with his own rhetoric. “Don’t send your pennies to India,” Gard is quoted in the Pagosa Springs News on July 1, 1898. “The Hottentot can get along for awhile without your contributions … We need missionaries and money and tornadoes of prayers and rivers of tears to civilize the heathens in darkest America. Turn your gospel machines loose on Denver’s gates of Hell. Batter down the stone walls of Capitol Hill and see Satan and his imps scamper. Go into the big department stores and offices, where physical serfdom cringes and moral ruin crouches and weeps, and rescue the perishing. Lift the mask from some of our courts and begin to get to your work of salvation as rapidly and vigorously as possible. Pry up a few boards under the altar in front of some of our pulpits and see if we don’t need several tons of saving grace right here in Colorado.” 

E. Chapin Gard, was just getting warmed up. And Rob Carrigan is just circling around behind him. 

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Tom McKee: Photographer and Friend of Ute history

Mr. Tom McKee and Cheta - Chief McCooks sister

Creator: Walker Art Studio

Date: 1920-1930

Studio portrait of Tom McKee and Cheta, a Native American woman (Ute) wearing a print dress and pearls.

 

Interviews collected during 1933 and 1934, for the state Historical Society  of Colorado, by C.W. A. Workers . (Civil Works Administration) 

Interviewer working on this county: Arthur W. Munroe

Concerning the life of Thomas Micheal McKee, the pioneer photographer of  Montrose 

Since 1887, Thomas McKee has been identified with interests of Western Colorado. Not being a man who craves publicity,  Mr. Mckee has gone about his work and pleasure quietly, and has said little to anyone about anything, unless approached for certain reasons.

Mr,  McKee was one of the first men in the the world to carry on experiments with carnotite ore and radium, some of his discoveries  leading to general use of radium throughout the world today.  In the early days of discovery, in the early days of his experimenting, he used carnotite ore as a means of furnishing light for photographic work." 

He was also one of the first men of the world to think of the commercial possibilities of the oil shale that is found in abundance in Western Colorado and Eastern Utah.

He was one of the first photographers to visit the mesa Verde region and make a photographic record of the historic ruins to be found within its borders

He has a collection of relics< photographs and early-day scenes, and material collected among the Ute Indians and wealth of information on general information topics, that a king's  ransom could not buy.

He is a an accomplished artist, and portrait painter , and an authority on the fossils and and paleontology, and on archeology, and Indian lore and knows more about the Ute Indians,  than  any other living man. His collection of Ute bead work and baskets, on exhibit at the Fox Theater in Montrose,  is worth $10,000 dollarsand will increase in value as the years go by.

Thomas Michael  Mckee was born in Scary Creek, Putman County, West Virginia, (it was then Virginia) on march 17, 1854, and was but a baby when his parents took him down the river by steamboat to Louisville, Kentucky, and then by stagecoach to Nashville, Tenn., where he spent his boyhood days and attended school. He studied portrait painting and in succeeding years, traveled over much of the South persuing this work. 

Along with his portrait work, Mr. McKee studied photography and took a course in anatomy, so that he would be better able to do portrait painting.

He watched Nashville grow from a small town to a city, and he watched the construction of some of her famous buildings. For years he traveled to Texas and adjoining states as an an express messenger. He went into El Paso on the first train to run over the Texas & Pacific and was employed by Texas Express Company when it closed its business. 

 Mr, Mckee was married in 1885 to Amanda S, Kauffman, and to them, sons were born. One son died in infancy, the eldest, Mizer, was drowned in the Gunnison River, and the other, John, is engaged in the asphault business in central Cuba.

In about 1887, Mr. McKee started from Texas to Sitka, Alaska, he had written to A. E. Buddecke, of Montrose, and learned that that was no photographer in Montrose, so he changed his plans and came here, the trip costing him fifty dollars more than it would have cost to go to Sitka.

During the many years that he has been around Montrose,  mr. mckee has taken thousands of photographs. He has photos of the old Fort Crawford, with soldiers on parade. He has pctues of the early day events. He spent several years as the official photogragher of the Denver & Rio Grande for Western Colorado.

While, as messenger on the Rio Grande Southern Railway, he came interested in the prehistoric ruins in Lost Canyon, between Mancos and Dolores, and photographed them.  Then, in 1896, he took and expedition into Mesa Verde, where at that time, there weer no trails. he and a great deal of difficulty doing his photography in this great  canyon country. He had to dig out the old springs  of the cliff dwellers to secure water for his work and camp use.

He had a dark room  in some fo the inner rooms of Spruce Tree House, and Cliff Palace, and had to carry his large plates across over the cliffs  and the oak brush,  he secured a wonderful bunch of photos, which were partially responsible for Mesa Verde being set aside as a National Park.

His guides were Carl. P. Thomas, Sheriff at Cortez, for whom Mr. McKee named the ruin across the canyon west of the hotel in Spruce Tree Camp, and Mr. Keely was his guide, and showed him the ruins at Yellow Jacket and the ruin canyon districts of Montezuma Valley.

Mr. McKee's photographs are now  the prized possessions of many museums, and others are clamoring for them.

Before radium was considered a commercial possibility, Tom Mckee was carrying on experiments with it, and it was largely through these efforts, together with Onias Skinner and Lynn Monroe, publishers of the Montrose Enterprise, and Gordon Kimball, Ouray citizen, that it has come into general use. Carnotite, the ore from which radium is taken, was discovered in Montrose County, by an Irishman named Duling, who sold the claims for $12,500. This county has since then produced many, many times that amount in radium ore. Mr. Mckee used nitrates of uranium, instead of gold in his photographic work.

From 1906 to 1920, Mr. Mckee spent most of his time in Utah, in the ute Reservation, to which the Uncompahgre Utes were taken after being removed from this valley. He learned to know the Utes, their language, their ways, and their dances and their customs. He was well-acquainted with Chipeta for sixteen years. and she often came to his home. Here he secured his famous collection of beadwork and baskets. Here he took time off from his own business to show the oil-bearing stratas to men who were interested in the study and development of oil shale.  

Mr. Mckee took some of the first X-ray pictures ever taken. He has always been an enthusiastic  trout fisherman, and has secured a Colorado fishing and small license every year since they were first issued.

He has always been much interested  in paleontology, and has collected many fossils and shown others where to find them. This has been more than merely a hobby and never commercialized his knowledge. In the early days, Mr. McKee maintained a studio in Ouray and one in the town of Old Dallas.

 Truly, Thomas McKee has greatly aided the development of this emphire that is Western Colorado. He has enriched the town of Montrose, by his presence there, and has won a place in the hearts of fellow citizens.

Mr. Mckee brought the first motion picture outfit into Western Colorado in 1895. It was Kinetoscope, and he exhibited it in every town in this part of the state. 

Dated: February 11, 1934. Interview reported by Arthur W. Munroe, Field Survey Worker for the Colorado Historical Society. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perry's rail photos deemed 'Suspicious Activity'

 

Rio Grande Southern view (narrow gauge) Creator: Perry, Otto, 1894-1970

Date: 1941 Showing depot, boxcar, and engine 20. Photographed: at Dolores, Colo., September 7, 1941.

 

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Denver railroad photographer Otto Perry took so many photos of trains in his lifetime, he managed to get himself arrested for "Suspicious Activity."

Perhaps he fell under the description of being neurodivergent, before the word cropped up in modern dictionaries. 

The term really got its start back in the late 1990s, and was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2002.  In 2019, the Oxford English Dictionary added it as well. It means basically having a brain that processes information and learns, pays attention, or behaves differently from what is considered typical or standard by society.  A lot of us railroad buffs, are sort of like that.

Neurodivergent is an umbrella term that describes people whose way of processing information is different from what society considers normal, according to Nick Walker, a psychology professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

"Brains differ from each other in the way fingerprints do. 'Neurodivergence' establishes this idea that within the spectrum of neurodiversity, there are dominant norms and divergences from those dominant norms," he said.

 "Right before the United States entered WWII, Otto was arrested for suspicious behavior and possible espionage in Woodward, Oklahoma. Otto was only trying to take pictures of railroads in the town, but policemen thought he was a spy photographing American trains for the enemy. Otto was imprisoned for a night, but released after they realized he was a mailman and they had no evidence of him being a spy. Otto then tried to sue the town, but the police officers claimed they were just doing their job. Otto dropped his lawsuit against the town when he couldn't find a lawyer who would represent his case," according to information from Denver Public Library Special Sections and Archives.

"During WWII, there was a ban on railroad photography, but this never stopped Otto. He would continue to take photos of trains in action without even needing to get into a rail yard," says records from Denver Public Library.

 Otto Perry lived (1894 - 1970) in Denver, Colorado his entire life. He was an avid railroad photographer during the 1910's up into the 1970's. He worked as a post man delivering mail. His travels and photographs are thankfully preserved at the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library.  

For over 50 years, beginning around 1915, Otto Perry photographed trains (primarily) and planes all over the world. 

According to Trainorders.Com "Mr. Perry was not a professional photographer, rather, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service in Denver. In the course of those 50-plus years, Mr. Perry created well over 20,000 images, many of which have appeared in a number of books about different railroads. From studying his work, it would seem that Mr. Perry spent nearly every spare minute he had either photographing trains. He never married thus didn't require "kitchen passes."'

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otto Perry (1894–1970) was an American photographer and railfan specializing in railroad photos. Perry worked as a mailman in Denver, Colorado, where he met and became friends with Louis McClure, another noted photographer.

By the time Perry died, his collection contained more than 20,000 photos, from all parts of North America. They were donated to the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library and have been made available

From Denver Public Library Special Sections and Archives:

Otto Perry (1894-1970)

Railroad photographer who predominantly photographed railroads in Colorado. He also took photos of railroads in all 48 continental United States. He was able to capture the history of railroads in the Rocky Mountains through his photography.

Early Life

Otto Conrad Perry was born on December 21, 1894, in Kansas City, Missouri. He was the first child of Frank and Clara Maude Perry. Otto had two sisters named Viola and Nellie May and a brother named Elmer. His father worked as a painter and as a streetcar motorman. Otto’s father would sometimes take Otto with him during his work, where Otto got to see railroads for the first time. Otto learned to love trains at a young age and spent time in railroad yards observing them.

In 1896, the Perry family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where Otto attended the McKinley School. Otto was a gifted child, but ended his formal schooling after he completed the eighth grade. In 1907, the Perry family moved to Denver, Colorado, due to some health issues Elmer was facing. There, Otto's family operated a rooming house, which all the children helped run.

Otto gets a Job

In 1910, Otto started working for Western Union delivering telegrams. Otto excelled at delivering telegrams on his bike, including on 200-mile round trips. He sometimes biked all the way from Denver, Colorado, to Cheyenne, Wyoming. In 1912, Otto accepted a position to do special deliveries for the U.S. Postal Service on his bike. Otto spent his career delivering telegraphs and mail. However, his photography of railroads was his real lifelong passion.

The Denver and Rio Grande system, which went from Denver to Colorado Springs, was completed in 1871. It was later extended to include more cities along the Front Range. The Moffat Tunnel line was completed in 1928, which was directly west of Denver and cut through the Continental Divide. Another important railroad was the Union Pacific Railroad, which was finished in 1869. Creating railroads in the West helped to tame the land and created infrastructure. Necessary materials were transported faster across the country using railroad systems, boosting the economy in the United States.

Early Love of Photography

By 1913, Otto realized that he loved photographing railroads. He originally used his father’s box camera, but by 1915 he was able to purchase his own Kodak 3A camera. By 1917, Otto had experimented with using a glass plate camera, but was back to using film by 1918.

During this time, Otto was drafted into WWI and was stationed with the 148th Field Artillery. Otto trained in the United States before he was sent off to war in England and in France. However, the war ended with an armistice before Otto even went to the front. Otto was also part of the Colorado National Guard during his lifetime.

Home from the War

When Otto returned from the war, he was a regular mailman. He purchased a Graflex camera and could now photograph trains both still and in action. Otto started off taking photos of trains on an Indian motorcycle and eventually upgraded to a large Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He then moved on to drive a Ford Model T, but he was famous for driving a 1935 Ford V8 car. He had racked up over 300,000 miles on his Ford V8 car, capturing photos of trains. While most of his photos were captured in Colorado, he traveled to all 48 continental U.S. states to take pictures of railroads. Otto also traveled to Canada, Mexico and Western Europe to capture the history of the railroad.

Retirement and Death

In 1957, Otto retired from the United States Post Office, but he continued to drive a parcel truck. He did not increase the amount of traveling he did even though he retired, but he did continue his railroad photography. He died in his home from illness on December 23, 1970. His funeral was filled with people who wanted to pay their respects to the legendary photographer.

Legacy

Otto started taking photos of railroads in 1913 and captured an entire history of railroads in 57 years. Otto produced over 20,000 negatives, which are now part of Denver Public Library’s Special Collections and Archives. He had been a member of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club since the club established in 1938. Otto was a lifelong bachelor and railroad fanatic. He also captured some photos of buses, planes, airships and boats. Otto recorded the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad the most in his photography. He photographed railroads that were between rough mountain terrain, which was very rare at the time. His contribution to preserving the history of railroads in the Rocky Mountains is extraordinary.

Teller County Leaf Peepers years ago

Friday, October 2, 2015

Aspen Gold Rush: Colorado Quakies showing great color in the past

 

Rob Carrigan,  robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Local leaf peepers experienced some of the best shows — so far to date— in Teller County, but it is still possible, the best is yet to come.
Color changes in Colorado’s Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) start first in the higher altitudes of subalpine zones, between 9,000 and 11,000 feet, usually in early September, and drop progressively to 8,000 to 9,500 feet in three to four weeks.
Variations in temperature, moisture and light cause the chemical changes to begin. Diminished light and fall temperatures trigger the breakdown of chlorophyll.
As green colors fade, yellow, orange and red pigments — carotenoids and xanthophylls — are left and become more obvious.
Cool, dry weather promotes the longest and best color show and wet weather, especially snow, usually shortens the viewing period.

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Pikes Peak area 'colour' on the Palmer Divide

 

Showing 'colour' in Fox Run Regional Park

"The phrase and the day and the scene harmonized in a chord. Words. Was it their colours? He allowed them to glow and fade, hue after hue: sunrise gold, the russet and green of apple orchards, azure of waves, the greyfringed fleece of clouds. No it was not their colours: it was the poise and balance of the period itself. Did he then love the rhythmic rise and fall of words better than their associations of legend and colour? Or was it that, being as weak of sight as he was shy of mind, he drew less pleasure from the reflection of the glowing sensible world through the prism of a language many coloured and richly storied than from the contemplation of an inner world of individual emotions mirrored perfectly in a lucid supple periodic prose?”
― James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

2018 Rocky Mountain National Park and nearby

 

Color fall: A summary

Fast-moving color in the Estes Park area in the fall of 2018

Nothing lasts forever, including fall colors. Still moving down valley with the freeze, there is still time. But very little. Winter's coming. At some point, the candle will go out, so make use of the light.

Photos by Rob Carrigan