I was on the road last week, visiting a couple of archives in southern Colorado, and thought I would share one of my favorite photographs from the trip. This photo by William E. Hook is from the collections of the Trinidad Carnegie Public Library.
It seems the photographer was having trouble getting the burro to face the camera, so he used a treat to get the burro’s attention. The man holding the treat may be Hook himself, based on portraits of the photographer.
The strenuous hike to the summit of Pikes Peak usually took two days. In the summer of 1891, a cog railway reached the summit. The dapper man in the center of the frame likely took the cog railway to the top.
Notice the dog sleeping in the lower right portion of the photograph. What else do you see?
Hook’s views of the Pikes Peak region were sold by the Fisher Brothers stationery store in Trinidad.
William E. Hook was a longtime photographer who deserves a long blog post, but here is a brief biography.
Hook was born in England in 1833. His family moved to the United States when Hook was only one year old, but they returned to England by 1851. Hook married Eleanor Jane Dore on May 22, 1857, and they had six children. Ten years later, Hook moved to the United States, leaving his wife and children in England. It would be twenty years before Hook and his wife lived together again!
Hook worked in Wisconsin, Montana, and Canada before settling in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he worked for about twenty years.
Stay tuned for more information on Hook and his photographs.
Thank you to Javonne Archibeque, Adult Programs & History Room Coordinator at the Trinidad Carnegie Public Library, who shared the collections with me.