Stereograph of 3rd St. in Ouray, Ouray County, Colorado, taken circa 1882-1883 by George E. Mellen. The stereograph was published by C.H. Clark, a publisher and trade agent in Gunnison. The foreground of the image is taken up by 3rd St. which extends out into the distance. In the center of the dirt street a saddled mule stands alone. To the left three more mules are being unsaddled by an unidentified man facing away from the photographer. Two horses are hitched to a post outside the A.W. Begole grocery, named for Augustus W. Begole (1837-1893). Next to that is another unidentified building and a sign reading “Hardware and Stoves.” On the right side of the street a sign reading “Grand Central” can also be seen. All of the storefronts are built with different architectural designs. At the end of the street is a large electrical pole, and in the distance the mountains are visible.
Photographer George E. Mellen ran his own studio in Gunnison during the early 1880s. Mellen traveled throughout the region to mining camps and new towns from Monarch Pass to the Elk Mountains and west to Grand Junction. In 1888, he opened a studio in Colorado Springs which closed within a year. This failure sent him to work at William Henry Jackson’s (1843-1942) studio and the Detroit Publishing Company in Denver. This arrangement lasted until the 1890s when Mellen turned over his negatives to Jackson who would go on to publish them under his own name.