Bowdin Trail marker, 1911,
Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.
Back in the 1980s I heard talk about a remarkable gallery of
painted animals in the upper Purgatory region of southeastern Colorado. At that
time Bill McGlone even showed me a couple of photographs that he had been
given. Then, in June of 1983, an article in The Denver Post by Bob Leasure,
showed a few of the pictures and gave more information about these remarkable
paintings. I had almost forgotten about
these in the intervening years until I recently received a shipment of pictures
and books from Daphne Rudolph, for donation to the Colorado Rock Art Archive at
the Pueblo Regional Library in Pueblo, Colorado. In sorting through the
material I was thrilled to find a number of those pictures of animals painted by
Martin Bowden in the Purgatory. The photographs seem to have been taken by one
Eldon Brown, but I know no more about him. As Daphne and John Rudolph used to
live in La Junta, Colorado, and were deeply involved in recording area rock art
I assume that he gave the photos to them.
Bear and Fox, Bowden Trail.
Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.
Silver Fox, Bowden Trail.
Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.
"Bowden was born near Lyons, France, of Italian
parents. His mother wanted to be a singer - her voice had an operatic quality -
but she ended up in Trinidad, Colorado, as the wife of a coal miner. Martin was
only a child when he crossed the ocean and changed worlds." (Leasure
1983:24)
"Before he even started to shave - he followed his
father into the mines. In the mines he always carried a pocketful of colored
chalk and amused himself at lunch time sketching on metal. When the dingy coal
cars came rolling into sunlight, they displayed an eye-catching variety of
pictures: a dragon snorting fire, a brilliant rooster crowing, a war-bonneted
Indian, a morose depiction of Christ on the cross." (Leasure 1983:24)
"The family name had been Baudino, but there was a
stigma about Italian names at that time, and he changed his name to
Bowden." (Leasure 1983:24)
CONTINUED NEXT WEEK IN PART 2.
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