Tag: Pike’s Peak

J. G. Hiestand, Official Photographer of the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway

Joseph Gonder Hiestand was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on August 15, 1860, to John Valentine Hiestand and Eve Ann Gonder Hiestand. His father worked as a coachmaker and later served as a clerk in Washington, D.C.  While in Washington, Joseph visited the Smithsonian Institution and developed an interest in mineralogy. He trained at Philadelphia’s Academy of Arts and Sciences and soon began assembling his own collection of minerals. 

In the early 1880s, Hiestand settled in Manitou Springs, Colorado, a tourist town renowned for its healing mineral springs, particularly the Ute Iron Springs. Hiestand opened the Manitou Scientific Museum in the pavilion of the Ute Iron Springs to showcase his collection of rare minerals–one of the largest in the West. His museum, a 25 x 40-foot room, was elegantly furnished and lined with display cases for mineral specimens, jewelry, and curiosities. The space was adorned with pictures as well as taxidermied animals and birds. Hiestand hired four men to work at the museum. A complete range of cigars, candy, and lemonade made from the iron-rich water was available for sale.

Ute Iron Springs
William Henry Jackson, photographer. Ute Iron Springs Pavilion, circa 1890. Denver Public Library Special Collections, WHJ-888.
Detail of Hiestand's photo studio
Detail showing Hiestand’s photo gallery

In the spring of 1887, Hiestand leased the Ute Iron Springs, one of Manitou’s most popular tourist attractions.  On March 28, 1889, Hiestand married Aline Zerelda Garrison Adams in Colorado Springs.  In addition to running the springs as a concession, Hiestand opened a photographic gallery at the Iron Spring Pavilion in July 1890. He became one of the best-known businessmen in Manitou Springs by managing both companies.  The gallery was under the day-to-day oversight of George E. Mellen, a photographer from Colorado Springs who was a former employee of William Henry Jackson, while photographer Lewis Imes oversaw portrait work.                   

Just inside the gallery, patrons entered a reception room filled with photographs from around the world.  Off the reception room was the operating room with floors of oiled Georgia pine and a skylight with panes of ground glass that let in a soft, mellow light.  The studio contained many backgrounds and screens for portrait work. Another room was devoted to making bromide enlargements and lantern slides.  A short stairway led to the flat roof of the building where large-size work could be printed by the sun’s rays.  Once developed, the prints were placed in a toning bath and then washed. A special set-up was devoted to panoramic work.  

When the 8.9-mile Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway began transporting passengers up Pikes Peak via steam-powered locomotives, Hiestand became the line’s official photographer. He took group portraits of the passengers at the summit and then sped down the rails on a go-devil–a single-person vehicle that quickly descended the slope. There, he developed the negatives and printed the photographs to sell to the passengers as they disembarked from the train. 

Pike's Peak
J. G. Hiestand, photographer. On Pikes Peak, alt. 14147 ft., Sept.1, 1892. Denver Public Library Special Collections, Z4962.
Group portrait
J. G. Hiestand, photographer. Group portrait, including Mildred Mary Myers (1871-1943) top left, John S. Cravens (1871-1946) bottom left, and possibly Mr. and Mrs. S. Christy Church (top right), August 1890. Albumen silver print. Collection of the author.

Ute Iron Springs was a popular tourist destination attracting well-heeled visitors from across the United States.  The families of  Mildred Mary Myers and John S. Cravens came to Manitou Springs from Kansas City, Missouri in the summer of 1890, where their friendship blossomed.  Miss Myers was the daughter of George S. Myers, a millionaire tobacconist.  John Craven was a graduate of Yale University. They married on December 28, 1893, in Missouri.

Hiestand’s photographs were published in several souvenir booklets of Colorado Springs, and the Pikes Peak region.  After nearly two decades of leasing the Ute Iron Springs, Hiestand purchased the property for $20,000. Based on his visit to the famous mineral baths in Saratoga, New York, he planned to invest $5,000 in improvements, including enlarging the pavilion and adding a hard-wood dancing floor.

In 1906, Hiestand was sued for $50,000 for breach of promise by Ida Clarke, a young woman who claimed she did not know Hiestand was married when she engaged in a romantic relationship with him. She attested that Hiestand promised to marry her. The sensational trial revealed that the young woman was under the age of consent when the couple took a prenuptial honeymoon. They had frequently registered at a Denver hotel as husband and wife. She lived at his home in Manitou for two years while Hiestand’s wife and three daughters were living in New York. The jury was unable to agree and was dismissed. Rather than go through another trial, the parties settled out of court. Miss Clarke’s settlement was disclosed as $16,000.

Hiestand died on January 1, 1916, when a gun he was cleaning discharged.  The bullet passed through his right side and lodged in the wall behind him.  Whether it was a suicide or an accident was never fully determined.  He was buried at the Middletown Cemetery in Middletown, Pennsylvania.  

Special thanks to Beverly W. Brannan, whose thoughtful feedback helped shape this piece. Dave Wendel, Digital Archives Specialist, at the Penrose Library — Regional History & Genealogy, Pikes Peak Library District provided valuable reference assistance.

 

Stevens: “The Man that Made Colorado Famous”

Portrait of F.P. Stevens. Courtesy of Findagrave

Fred Park Stevens was born on July 19, 1872, near Spinney, Park County, Colorado, to H. Hoyt Stevens and Adee Euphosene Fillebrown Steven.  In 1876, the family moved to Colorado Springs.  He attended the St. Louis Manual Training School at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, graduating fourth in a class of sixty-one students. In 1892, he entered Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, majoring in mechanical engineering.  To earn money for college, Fred made blueprints for students. In 1896, after graduation, he returned home to Colorado Springs and resided in the Alta Vista Hotel, managed by his father. 

In 1897, Stevens took his photography skills to the next level by partnering with Wilbur E. McChristie, founder of the Nonpareil Portrait and Publishing Company, based in Ohio.  McChristie, ill with tuberculosis, had relocated to Colorado Springs for his health. 

Later that year, Stevens hiked up iconic Pike’s Peak (14,115 feet above sea level) and spent a week at the summit, waiting for the perfect moment to capture the sunrise in a photograph. His image from the mountaintop, an exposure of a fiftieth of a second, received immense praise and gained widespread attention. Harper’s Weekly published the picture in its December 11, 1897, issue.  

Sunrise
F. P. Stevens, photographer. Sunrise From Pike’s Peak, 1897, hand-colored photograph. Courtesy  L. Tom Perry Special Collections,  Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602

This accomplishment was followed by a companion photograph, “Sunset behind Pike’s Peak.”  In less than four years, more than 60,000 copies of these two photographs have been sold, wholesale and retail, either as black and white prints or hand-colored with watercolors.  

Sunset
F. P. Stevens, photographer. Sunset Behind Pike’s Peak, hand-colored photograph. Courtesy, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602.

Having bought out his partner in the spring of 1898, Stevens moved into a new ground-floor studio, calling his business Stevens Fotograferie. The operator hired to oversee portraiture had previously worked at Napoleon Sarony’s prestigious gallery.   Stevens’ firm specialized in Colorado views, interiors, and portraits of animals, hand-colored or black and white.  They produced lantern slides, provided photocopying and enlarging services, and developed and printed photographs by amateurs. 
             

In 1899, the Lackawana Railroad Company commissioned Stevens to photograph their route.   In February 1900, he made views of Pueblo, Colorado, including a group portrait by flashlight of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen ball at the Colorado Mineral Palace.  

Booklet
Stevens Views. The Man that Made Colorado Famous.   Booklet by Foltz & Hardy, circa 1900. Collection of the author.

In August 1900, Foltz and Hardy, Colorado Springs’ new book and stationery store, became the general agents for Steven’s sunrise and sunset photographs, selling them at 50 cents a pair.  The contract called for the delivery of photographs amounting to $4,500 retail, at the rate of 5,000 photos per week if required.  This large number of prints could only be offered because Stevens had invented an automatic, electric printing machine capable of printing 900 prints an hour.  

In 1902, Stevens’ photographs were featured in Denver the Coming City: A Collection of Forty Instantaneous Photographs of Life in Denver, published by F. S. Thayer in a limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies.  Later that year his work was included in a souvenir viewbook of Colorado Springs published by Critic Publishing.  The booklet of twenty-four photographs included “Pike’s Peak at Sunset,” the first time this popular photograph appeared in a book.  

Under advice from his physician, Stevens decided to move to a lower elevation.  Stevens sold his photographic business to L. A. Hatch of Orange, New York, in December 1902.  He also sold all rights to his famous Sunset and Sunrise views to the Foltz and Hardy bookstore.  Stevens had married Elsie Slayback on June 19, 1901.  When they left Denver in the next year, they planned to visit tourist attractions in the Eastern states before resuming his photographic business, perhaps in California.  

In December 1902, Stevens began work for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, to be  held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904.  The Fair planned to issue photographic admission passes.  To efficiently accomplish this, Stevens invented an automatic electric printing machine capable of printing 600 prints an hour. He received a patent for his invention.  An average of 1,200 people were photographed daily, setting a world record. The entire process including taking the picture, developing and pasting it into the passport took approximately an hour.

In 1905, Stevens brought his printing technology to the Lewis & Clark Exposition held in Portland, Oregon.  In December 1908, Stevens was appointed the official photographer of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition held in Seattle the following year.

Stevens moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1913 where he managed the commercial photography firm, Canadian Photo Company.  

Stevens died on December 1, 1915, at the age of forty-three, in Vancouver, leaving his wife a widow.  Stevens was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs.

Thank you to Beverly W. Brannan for proofreading this post.  Brigham Young University kindly provided scans of Stevens’ sunset and sunrise photographs.