April 1, 1916 Dearest Julius, I have the saddest news to share with you and it could not be any richer that it happened on April Fool’s Day. The morning was fine, with a cobalt blue sky. The snow in my yard melted quickly during the late warmth of March. Colorful Crocuses, my lovely blue […]
Welcome to the Wild West
It is said, a woman never steps into a river twice, for she is not the same woman nor is it the same river. The ebb and flow of life brought me the passion to write. After a career in commercial photography, I could not leave the stimulating the imagination, black and white photography behind. Thus, I have created books of words and pictures. I hope you will enjoy these historical stories and share my website with friends and associates.
Then & Now, published in 2009 with a grant from the Colorado Historical Fund shows the built environment of Steamboat Springs from the 1880’s to the 21st Century with the town’s history recorded by decades and photographs of buildings then and today. It is a coffee table book in its third printing.
$34.99
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Victims of Love, Banished in 1914 combines archival era images, Colorado history and a romantic love story of two British immigrants meeting in a thriving wild west town, Steamboat Springs. Heartbreak, adventure, danger, fly fishing, and a quest for women’s freedom of choice builds a dialog driven plot of a gentleman, formerly of the servant class and an undaunted, privileged lady struggling with the stigma of tuberculosis. Passion persists in a rigid social structure resisting a woman’s right to free speech.
$25.00
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Then and Now - A History of Steamboat Springs, Colorado presents a series of images that immerse the reader in currents of twentieth century history. Ken Proper's architectural photographs delineate the physical essence of a small western town's birth and development. Harriet Freiberger's words complete a larger picture, connecting people and events in Steamboat Springs with America's progress toward maturity.
Recent Blog Posts
Corina ReflectsRead More
March 2, 1916 I finished typing the diary of the man I love and now I wait. I know what he thought every day for eighteen months. Lord Ogilvy wrote a note, placed it inside the journal’s cover with Julia’s opened letter and then mailed all to me. He wrote with his surprisingly poor penmanship, […]
Exodus & A letter from JuliaRead More
January 3, 1916 Stir-crazy, I took a walk this morning. The weather was fine, the sky azure, the snow only boot-top deep and my confidence in du Bois’s health soared. He can walk, not well, but with a cane he gets around. His frostbitten, black tinted feet look terrible, but the physician had not found […]
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Ken Proper is a career commercial photographer in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Since 2009, he has been a frequent contributor of feature stories and photography in both American and Southwest Fly-Fishing magazines. He co-authored, also in 2009, Then and Now: A History of Steamboat Springs with Harriet Freiberger. The first and second editions sold out and is now in a third, which continues to sell well.
Currently, Ken Proper self-published a historical fiction novel, A Diary by Victims in Love: Banished to Steamboat Springs in 1914. The love story is weaved with archival, early Twentieth Century photographs and illustrations. The books are available on this website and in Steamboat bookstores.