If you enjoy photography and old west history, you'll want to spend some time in Leadville, Colorado. Leadville was a boomtown during the late 19th century with the silver strikes of 1877 and 1878. The glory years ended by the end of the century although the town was occasionally boosted by mining operations of lesser metals including zinc and lead, and Leadville was little more than a hardscrabble town by the second half of the 20th century.
In any case, there is still a goldmine of photographic opportunities in the town. I wandered around town for a couple of hours in 2010 and then again in 2011 and just shot whatever caught my eye.
Blakely Smale Dry Goods Company
The Tabor Opera House is the most famous building in town. Built by Horace Tabor in 1879, performers included Oscar Wilde, John Philip Sousa and Harry Houdini. Tabor became wealthy not by discovering silver, but by grub staking. David May started the May Company department store in Leadville in the late 1870s. The legendary Unsinkable Molly Brown who survived the sinking of the Titanic was another famous Leadville resident.
This photo is from one of central Colorado's other historic boomtowns: Central City.