Miners Pack Train Summit of Pikes Peak Colorado Circa 1890
Original Photo
Original Albumen print photograph of a western scene of miners driving a pack train of donkeys at the summit of Pike's Peak, Colorado, circa 1890. Publisher and photographer "W.H. Walker of West Denver, CO". printed n verso of mount. Photographer original board measures 5" x 8" inches, the Albumen itself is 7.25" x 4.25" inches. Exceedingly clear shot of a miners and donkey train carrying the at the summit of Pike's Peak in the Rockies. Many of the smaller mines in Colorado were high in the mountains, inaccessible by railroad or wagon. Mine owners would hire packers to drive donkeys or mules up the mountain to deliver supplies to the mine. They could even haul heavy and valuable materials such as lumber and ore. The ore would then be delivered to smelters set up on the mountain who could remove the gold or silver from raw quartz rock. Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America and was site of The Pike’s Peak Gold Rush. It brought unprecedented numbers of people into that region and that in turn led to powerful social and economic changes that brought about the creation of Colorado Territory in 1861, culminating in the admittance of Colorado to the Union in 1876. Mining in all its phases remained the great engine of the Colorado economy until the early twentieth century. The location of the image is the ultra-prominent 14,115-foot, located in Pike National Forest, 12 miles west of downtown Colorado Springs. The image shows 9 or 10 donkeys in view with 4 miners or packers in western overall and hat and a well dressed businessman in the background. Caption written in the negative "Pack Train Summit of Pikes Peak" and "Colorado" in cursive on the original photographer mount. The photograph is in very good. condition.Item #17665
Price: $325.00
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