A lone photographer embarked on a momentous journey in the American West traveling west from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the banks of the Colorado River and the mines of Eldorado Canyon in today’s Nevada.  The year was 1863, many years before anyone else took the next photo of this desert and its travelers, crossroads, forts, soldiers, and watering holes.

On Sunday, Oct. 20 at 3:00 p.m., at the Duarte Historical Museum, 777 Encanto Parkway, Duarte, Author Jeffrey Lapides will reveal many of these rare photos and tell the story of the German photographer Rudolph d’Heureuse—a surveyor, cartographer, civil engineer, mining engineer, oenologist, photographer and inventor.  The backdrop to this story is the American Civil War, relations between white settlers, Hispanics, and Native Americans, military exploits, salacious news accounts, and greed.

Lapides is a Southern California jewelry photographer and book designer residing in Sierra Madre. His current book entitled The Mojave Road in 1863: The Pioneering Photographs of Rudolph d’Heureuse will be on display and available for purchase.

Admission is free.  For more information call:  626 358-0329.