“The Santa Fe Trail – A View After 150 Years”

Opening reception and presentation beginning at 5:30 p.m., Friday, April 13, at the Heritage Center, 201 W. “B” Street.

Pueblo, Colorado Date, 2007 – The Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center will present a photo exhibit by Ronald Dulle about the Santa Fe Trail in southeastern Colorado from April 13 through May 31. The show of some 35 photos will include quotes and interpretations of experiences and places along the Santa Fe Trail.

“My pursuit is to create artful images of what is left of the Santa Fe Trail and to bridge those days to the present. I tell the stories behind the photos with commentary and quotes allowing the men and women of the time to talk to the viewer,” said Dulle.

“There were some very unique interactions and exchanges that took place in southeastern Colorado 150 years ago that laid the foundations for life here today. The Santa Fe Trail ushered in many cultural and political changes for Native American, United States, and Hispanic peoples of the southwest. The interesting mix of people who lived and adapted here may have modeled solutions to today’s issues.”

For over 50 years in the middle of the 1800s, the Santa Fe Trail was a trade route of bold individuals and their freight wagons between St. Louis, Missouri, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the end, this international highway connected the eastern states to the southwest, California, and Mexico.

Many original Trail sites, including those in southeastern Colorado, have disappeared because of fire, nature and the plow. Others remain, with some being renovated, but they continue to change. Some are in danger. The exhibit memorializes many of them.

The exhibit is part of Dulle’s ongoing project of photographing historic sites throughout Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, the Oklahoma Panhandle and New Mexico, and is the only one of its kind and scope.

Dulle presents his images by means of laser light on photographic paper, which results in prints with depth and the feeling of being there.

Ronald Dulle studied photography at the University of Denver and Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Colorado.

He has exhibited at shows in Denver, Pueblo, Trinidad, and La Junta, Colorado; Raton, Cimarron, and Las Vegas, New Mexico; Pueblo Art Guild Shows; and McPherson and Larned, Kansas. He has won awards for his southwestern images.

He had a career in Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing in the Denver area.