Tough Men in Hard Places: A Photographic Collection

By Esther Greenfield

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 150 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestWinds Press
• Release date: Oct 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781941821336

Esther Greenfield

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.

Book preview

TOUGH MEN

IN HARD PLACES

A PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

from the Western Colorado Power Company Collection,

Center of Southwest Studies, Durango, Colorado

Esther Greenfield

Text © 2014 by Esther Greenfield.

All photographs courtesy of Center of Southwest Studies,

Western Colorado Power Company Collection.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.å

Greenfield, Esther.

Tough men in hard places : a photographic collection / Esther Greenfield.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-941821-12-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-941821-49-7 (hardbound)

ISBN 978-1-941821-33-6 (e-book)

1. Rural electrification—Colorado—History. 2. Electric utilities—Colorado—History. 3. Electric industry workers—Colorado—History. I. Title.

HD9688.U53C657 2014

333.793'209788091734—dc23

2014017813

Design by Vicki Knapton

Front cover: Wear and tear on Trout Lake flume,

Telluride, CO, May 1921. Photographer: P. C. Schools.

Published by WestWinds Press®

An imprint of

P.O. Box 56118

Portland, Oregon 97238-6118

503-254-5591

www.graphicartsbooks.com

For Samuel and Judith Greenfield.

Ames Power Plant, Ames, CO, c. 1910. Photographer: Unknown.

Raising poles near Tacoma Power Plant, Durango, CO, August 1930.

Photographer: P. C. Schools.

Map of the Western Colorado Power Company system of power stations. Artist: Unknown.

Riveting pipe, Cascade flume, Durango, CO, 1924.

Photographer: P. C. Schools.

FOREWORD

Esther Greenfield’s Tough Men in Hard Places brings us the story of industrial development in the San Juan Mountains of Western Colorado during a thrilling period of western American history. This book shines a light on the unique story of electrification and the stabilization of electric power supply systems on Colorado’s western slope. The man at the center of the story, P. C. Schools, was and remains one of the fascinating personalities of the development of communities focused on mining, ranching, and later, tourism in this most beautiful section of Colorado.

This book draws from an increasingly useful collection of documents and photographs deeded to the Center of Southwest Studies from the successors of the Western Colorado Power Company. That company, P. C. Schools’s employer, is an example of the new conglomerations of energy production businesses in remote regions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period synonymous with the Progressive Era and a second, massive wave of industrialization in America and its western states. The collection is a source of pride for the Center and is growing in popularity with researchers interested in the growth of the American electrical grid and a renewed focus on the historical environmental