The Frontier

Main street in a mountain mining town: a stagecoach rolling down the middle of the dirt road, riders at the rails, and a snow-dusted peak at the far end. All of it sits inside the outline of a bison.

Towns like this existed because of gold. The Colorado rush began in 1858 with a strike near Little Dry Creek, in what is now Englewood. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part, and by 1860 Denver City, Golden City and Boulder City were substantial towns. Colorado Territory was created on February 28, 1861. Camps like these rose wherever the next strike was reported, from Montana to Nevada.

The stage that served them was often a Concord coach, built by Abbot-Downing in Concord, New Hampshire, roughly 3,000 of them between 1847 and 1899. The body rode on leather thoroughbraces, so it rocked on the road rather than jolting, which spared passengers some of the worst of the trail.

The picture is a double exposure. Inside the bison's dark outline, a gold-washed sky and a white peak sit above wooden storefronts under awnings, with wagons and riders in the road. The head stays solid at the right, and the legs dissolve into dry grass on cream paper.