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sites from chapter 2 of 'no use for moonlight'

note the addition of Shannahan Ridge Trail, Old Glory, and rail and streetcar lines. map visualized using a 1904 proposed plan of Boulder, 1926 map of downtown, and a basemap of the modern city

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stereoscope views of Boulder sites, c.1906, from the Edwin Tangen collection at the Carter Museum.

The first image shows the "perfect tree," a popular tourist destination in what would become Roosevelt National Forest. The second shows a view of a rocky ledge above Boulder.

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Boulder Creek, c.1900-1920s, from the Edwin Tangen collection at the Carter Museum

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Rischar's Brass Band, c.1903, from the Carnegie Library for Local History.

In the second image, the band is posed atop the rock formation known as Old Glory.

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Mapleton Hill, near 6th Street, early 20th century, from the Carnegie Library for Local History

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Pearl Street, c.1900-1910, from the Carnegie Library for Local History

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mountaineering in turn of the century Boulder, c.1898-1909, from the Carnegie Library for Local History

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the Hotel Boulderado, c.1909-1929, from the Carnegie Library for Local History

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views of the Boulder Chataqua Grounds, c.1899-1909, from the Carnegie Library for Local History

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Boulder daytime fashions, c.1900-1910, from the Carnegie Library for Local History. Both men in this image are wearing Fenwick-style collars.

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Interior view of Conway's Saloon, c.1895, from the Carnegie Library for Local History's A.A. Paddock collection.

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sites from no use for moonlight chapter 1, visualized on arcGIS using a current map of boulder and two historic plans: one from 1904 and one from 1920

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chapter 1 end notes

Some historical notes:

The Chautauqua Movement began in New York State towards the end of the nineteenth century. It was an educational movement that quickly spread through the US, emphasizing teaching and self-improvement. In the Western US, like Colorado where this story is set, these goals somewhat overlapped with progressive-era interest in natural beauty and physical fitness and Chautauqua sites became places for tourism with a self-improving bent. For context: Teddy Roosevelt is also creating national parks, and museums are becoming increasingly publicly accessible at this time– there was a huge sense that people wanted entertainment and fun that they could feel was also fairly edifying. In this fic, Ed is a little skeptical of these goals, but that has as much to do with his reluctance to see his city change as anything else. You can still visit the Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO today– and I believe the site in NY as well. The summer of 1903, when this fic takes place, was a major year for the Boulder Chautauqua: it hosted Rischar’s brass band (referenced in this fic) for the entire season and hit a major heyday of social and educational events. You can see images of Rischar’s band here: https://localhistory.boulderlibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A71893 and find more info on the Chautauqua here: https://www.chautauqua.com/2021/chautauqua-movement-history/)

The Daily Camera, the paper Ed writes for, was a real newspaper in Boulder in 1903, and is still the town’s paper today. Greyson, the newspaper editor in this fic, is completely made up. I have no idea if the Camera ran a social column, but they were very popular in other daily papers of the time. Extant copies I’ve seen of papers from New York State include everything from who was hosting dinner parties, what musicians and lecturers were touring nearby towns, who was hiring for what kind of jobs, not to mention life milestone announcements like weddings and funerals. Daily periodicals were super important to community life in the past, and now are a great way to learn about what the average day might have looked like at the turn of the century. The society pages were typically written by women reporters, or were assembled from notes that people sent in to the editor announcing whatever events they were hosting or attending– it would have been pretty unusual for a field reporter like Ed to be moved from ‘real’ news to these columns, but I’ve taken artistic liberty there because I just love giving that man stuff to be grumpy about.

The Crags mountains which are referenced throughout the fic are better known today as the Flatirons. All of the trails that Ed and Stede hike in this fic are trails that still exist today.

Conway’s Saloon was also a real place, and was situated at 1147 Pearl Street. The CO Carnegie Library has some great images of the interior of this historic bar, which is now a clothing store on the Pearl Street Mall.

I have slightly stretched the truth when it comes to the Hotel Boulderado: the hotel didn’t open until 1909, but it is such a magical landmark that I couldn’t resist including it here. (there’s some beautiful historic images of the interior and more info on the hotel website: https://www.boulderado.com/about/)

There’s also quite a bit of detail I include about fashion of the period. it’s such an interesting time of transition from the stuffiness of the gilded age to more relaxed eras, especially in a frontier context like the Rockies where people were constantly moving through, introducing new trends from back east and beyond. there are also some very real environmental conditions that make some of the more impractical edwardian elements passé more quickly. If people are interested, I’ll put together a lookbook but here are some links for good overviews of the fashions featured in this fic: https://victorian-era.org/edwardian-era-mens-clothing.html , https://www.filson.com/blog/field-notes/evolution-of-mountaineering-gear/ .

I used the amazing Chris Woodyard’s information about the fashions for men’s bathing suits in this time period when thinking up Stede’s outfit for the Boulder Creek excursion, though I have stretched the truth a little bit. Chris’ work is such a treasure, as she’s an expert on 19th and early 20th century newspapers and has made so many resources digitally available. Also, if you like the macabre, she has great books on Victorian death ideology and hauntings. https://mrsdaffodildigresses.wordpress.com/tag/edwardian-mens-bathing-suits/

The steamboat travel guide that Ed reads was real, published in NY in 1902. I have no idea if it was boring or not, sorry for potentially unfairly roasting the memory of one Cromwell Childe.