Photo Description
In this ca. 1880s scene, pack trains on Harrison Avenue (Leadville, Colorado) are loaded with supplies for the mines. Many of the donkeys are carrying lumber, while others carry wooden crates and burlap sacks. The photo was taken by "Brisbois" photo studio which was established in Leadville around 1880. The January 1, 1883 edition of the Leadville Daily Herald described the studio:
...the elegant suite of photographic rooms known as Brisbois' gallery, on East Fifth street. These comprise parlor, office, frame toilet, operating, chemical and dark rooms, each separate but communicating, and cover about one-half the up-stairs space in the Chicago block.
By 1890 Leadville's big boom was over, and both citizens and businesses in the city were experiencing hard times. A march, 1890 advertisement declared that photographs at Brisbois' Studio were now half price at $5 per dozen. The studio is mentioned in newspapers a few more times in 1891 and 1892, but appears to have closed soon after.
