Tough Men in Hard Places: A Photographic Collection

Description

The mines in southwestern Colorado were in trouble and needed cheap, reliable electric power to keep running. This is the story of innovative solutions to solve the problem using alternating current electricity and the incredible effort, tenacity, and toughness of the men who overcame formidable obstacles to bring electrification to the mines, ranches, homes, and businesses in the remote and rugged areas of southwestern Colorado. Here is their story in over 80 intriguing historic photos from the Center of Southwest Studies. Tough men peer from the pages with attitude to spare next to gargantuan equipment in unforgiving terrain. Many of the photographs were taken by Philip "P. C." Schools, power plant superintendent with the Western Colorado Power Co., whose turn-of-the-century photographs documented the coming of electricity to Southwest Colorado and from which his legacy glows.

You can find Esther in one of two places. Either she will be searching the archives at the Center of Southwest Studies, or hiking in the Weminuche Wilderness as a volunteer for the San Juan Mountains Association looking for arborglyphs. A far cry from her life in Washington, DC, where she was born and worked for the Veterans Administration. She is married and lives in Durango, Colorado.

"For the most part, Journalists, (a label I've proudly worn for nearly sixty years), focus on history as it's being made, and historians on 'the lies agreed to' of events past. Esther merges the two and writes with present tense immediacy of events concluded decades ago. In her intelligent book, TOUGH MEN IN HARD PLACES, she gives life and voice to some of America's most hard driven heroes-all of them long ago lost to the years. You can almost see their lips moving in the compelling photographs that accompany their own words, faithfully translated to print. . . It's a celebration of American enterprise everywhere." -Sid Feders, Executive Director, Envision Entertainment, Emmy, Peabody and Dupont award-winning former Executive Producer NBC News "As a sixth generation Durangoan, I great enjoyed seeing this wonderful collection of old photos and reading the firsthand accounts of the men who made our community's electrification possible. TOUGH MEN IN HARD PLACES belongs in your library." Roderick Barker, Owner, The Strater Hotel, Durango, CO "Wiring our West: Book illuminates electrification of Southwest Colorado. . . The images in TOUGH MEN IN HARD PLACES come from the [Western Power Company's] collection of 8,000 documents, blueprints and photographs, most taken from the 1890s to the 1940s. The collection was donated to the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, where Greenfield, a volunteer, got the first look at this treasure trove. She spent three years preparing the collection for an archivist. . . "This is a collection of photographs I find visually beautiful." . . . With magnifying glass in hand, Greenfield delighted in peering at subtle details such as two men perched atop smokestacks more than 100 feet above the Durango powerhouse in 1917 and a dog wearing shoes at the Tacoma power plant in 1910. But most of all she was drawn to the rugged men and the aesthetics of the machinery - the architecture, large and small, of a new age." -David Buck, The Durango Herald "TOUGH MEN IN HARD PLACES is a book that everyone, with even the slightest interest in history, should own personally. If you are just fascinated with people; you have to look at the faces of the men who brought electricity to Western Colorado over . . . and over again. If you are curious about the ingenuity and industry of early America in the West, you have to peruse each picture in depth. Finally, if you like photography in its purest and most primitive black and white form, this book is a "must have." "TOUGH MEN IN HARD PLACES is a classic portrait of the greatness of America "in the making." It is a book you will go through from cover to cover, and then do it again. I love history. I love America. I love the people who made our country into what it is today. A few words and a great number of pictures tell you a true story you will never forget." -Allen C. Harper, Owner, The Durango and Silverton, Narrow Gauge Railroad