Three Views of Euro-American Settlement in Durango and Silverton, Colorado, with a Photograph of a Mining Camp, c. 1883-1884

Colorado, 1884. Albumen photographs measuring 7 ½ x 4 ½ inches on larger mounts. Some chips to mounts, occasional foxing and spotting, good to very good overall with very good contrast. Good. Three early photographs of Colorado taken by an unknown photographer in the early 1880s, taken shortly after the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad made Durango and Silverton more accessible to Euro-American settlement. D&RG had chosen Durango as the site for a settlement to reach Silverton and the San Juan Mountains. One image shows a group of miners, with one identified on the back as John Ward. The region would boom in population in the years following the railroad, largely from emigrant workers who came to the area to work as miners. We find no other record of these images.