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"Clear Creek Cañon." Georgetown, Colorado, circa 1901. Famous for the Georgetown Loop, a narrow-gauge railroad visible in the distance. 8x10 glass plate by William Henry Jackson, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Nothing much has changed, other than the tourists
I have compared this photo with fresh photos in Street View. I started from the south end of Taos St. and found soon many houses which are in this photo - many of them wooden. Not only the remarkable buildings have remained but also quite ordinary city street buildings. Amazing, absolutely! Since 1901 there has not been fatal fires, neither too eager rebuilding. I honor the city officials who have succeeded in this. I wish I had an opportunity to visit Georgetown.
This place is near and dear to my heart. It's a beautiful little place with equally beautiful, wonderful people. Thank you for bringing a smile to my face, Dave.
[See also: Bisbee, Ouray, Silverton. - Dave]
Using 8x10" (or bigger) plate cameras, Jackson (who died at 99 in 1942) left us an invaluable treasure of extremely detailed landscape pictures, including this one.
. . . and the switchback trails in the distance have been expanded into proper roads, but not much else has changed.
This might be one of the least-altered vintage city views I've seen on this fine site-- except for the massive expansion of that steep one-one lane trail to the right, heading uphill to Silver Plume. Today, we call that trail "I-70." So do you have any shots of Silver Plume? That remains the most unspoiled mountain town I've found, even so surprisingly close to Denver.
Public school built 1874.
It can be seen in back, where the track looped over itself climbing to Silver Plume. Abandoned in the '30's, the loop has been restored. It's nice to see this on Shorpy. Most of W. H. Jackson's Colorado photos are in the Denver Public Library Western History collection.
Interesting to probably no one but me, I was in Georgetown last week. It's changed remarkably little since the time of this picture, although there are currently more trees. I also learned that my grandmother and grandfather stayed at the Hotel De Paris on 6th Ave during a honeymoon road trip in 1925.
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