Based on the book of the same name, Tough Men in Hard Places was an exhibition that highlighted a remarkable era of innovation in bringing electrical power to the mines, ranches, and homes of Southwest Colorado beginning in the 1890s. Through selected historic photographs, the exhibition documented the men who braved electrical storms, avalanches, rugged mountain terrain, and extreme weather at the turn of the twentieth century. Tough Men in Hard Places spoke to the tenacity, vision, imagination, and resilience of electrical workers, both past and present.
The photographs were drawn from the Western Colorado Power Company Collection (CSWS P009 & P001), housed in the Center of Southwest Studies’ Delaney Southwest Research Library and Archives, which holds more than 8,000 images from the company’s former archives. Most of the photographs in the collection were taken by Philip “P. C.” Schools, Chief Engineer of the Western Colorado Power Company, documenting every stage of the emerging electrical power process and the introduction of electricity to Southwest Colorado.
The accompanying book, Tough Men in Hard Places: A Photographic Collection, was researched and written by Esther Greenfield, a long-time volunteer at the Center of Southwest Studies. Through her three-year project to organize the Western Colorado Power Company Collection, Greenfield helped make these materials accessible to researchers and inspired the publication. The exhibition displayed selected images at a large format, accompanied by historical objects from the era.