Historic Treasures of the San Juan Mountains

Historic Treasures of the San Juan Mountains is a coffee table book of black and white photographs by Thomas Livingstone. The description says it holds over a hundred images, his favorites from a larger photographic series, mixed with history, poetry and historic quotations about the San Juans.

The subject is abandoned mining buildings. Telluride Arts describes the series as photographs of abandoned mining sites left from the gold and silver rush of the late 1800s and early 1900s, made to document remains that are decaying and to honor early mining pioneers. Livingstone, a Silverton photographer, told the Ouray County Plaindealer the idea began around 2009 on Red Mountain, where he found the Guston boarding house, and grew from a Silverton show into a project across the range, including Telluride, Lake City, Creede and Ouray.

The Plaindealer says the book is 160 pages and the project took seven years, and Telluride Arts says Livingstone completed it in 2021. The catalogue lists 2019 as the year and the same 160 pages. The sources disagree on when the project ended, so we give no other dates. Livingstone told the paper he removed some modern signs and graffiti, and otherwise edited as in a darkroom, with dodging, burning and contrast changes.

This is for readers who care about San Juan Mountains mining history and fine art black and white photography. It also suits people who hike to old mine sites and want to see them as they stand, and collectors of Colorado photography books. Livingstone told the Plaindealer he hopes the work builds interest in preserving old mining structures.