Historic Photos of Colorado Found in a Hidden Box
Here's another round of classic images out of Western Colorado by the late Robert Grant. All images here feature Grand Junction area events prior to 1985.
Take a look and see how many Western Colorado locations you recognize. You may have been at some of these events. There's even a chance you may know someone pictured.
Where Did These Pictures Come From?
All of the pictures featured here are by late Daily Sentinel photographer Robert Grant. These were recently found in an old album that had somehow been separated from the rest of his photographs.
Random Photos From Around Grand Junction, Colorado
These recently found images do not relate to any particular subject, time, or event. The only thing they have in common is Western Colorado.
Why Were These Preserved?
Robert Grant was the photographer at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel from late 1930 up until his retirement in 1985, minus four years while he served with the Army in World War II.
These photographs represent remnants of test shots or "failed" prints. Keep in mind, before digital, we had film. You would take a shot, utilizing as much skill as possible to get it right. The film was then developed, in this case by hand. From those negatives, a print would be made, again by hand.
Sometimes the print would turn out the way you wanted, but most times, it didn't. You would then make another print, this time with more or less exposure. You may even make multiple efforts to get the dodging right.
These prints represent those that didn't make the cut. They may be a little underdeveloped, or overdeveloped, the cropping wasn't right, or the dodging was off. In that case, they go to the darkroom floor.
I can remember walking around Bob Grant's darkroom and being ankle-deep in prints piled on the floor.
Why They're Still Around
Bob Grant was something of a hoarder. I believe that as a child growing up during the Great Depression, Bob became more than a little frugal, bordering on ultra-conservative when it came to things such as this.
Bob would take prints such as these, along with the negatives, and store them in a series of old metal file cabinets in his garage. Those file cabinets and their contents eventually found their way to Bob Grant's daughter, and then ultimately to me.
This particular batch somehow evaded the black hole of filing cabinets and wound up in an album. That album found its way to a "secret compartment" at Bob Grant's daughter's house. That's where I found them a week ago.
Put Some Eyes On These
Like always, you're bound to recognize the locations. There's always a chance you might recognize someone featured. It never fails with these galleries. In the meantime, now that these have been digitized, the original prints will be handed over to Mesa County's Museum of the West later today.