Joseph Bevier Sturtevant took hundreds of photographs of people, places and events in pioneer Boulder. From 1884 to the time of his death in 1910, he walked around town with his large, bulky camera and tripod on his shoulders. Boulder had other early photographers, but Sturtevant was the only one to document an era.
More commonly known as “Rocky Mountain Joe,” he was not only a prolific photographer but also one of Boulder’s most colorful characters. With long hair, mustache and goatee (and often wearing a fringed buckskin shirt and pants), Sturtevant looked like the Indian scout he claimed to have been. Children were known to follow him to the top of Flagstaff Mountain, where he built campfires and held his youthful audience spellbound with stories of his, sometimes exaggerated, exploits.
Sturtevant was born in 1851 to Swedish immigrants in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up, however, in Wisconsin, where his father became an Indian trader. Legendary accounts state that as a youngster, Sturtevant befriended some Indians who taught him to ride and shoot. Eventually, he performed in a traveling circus and then joined the U.S. Army.
By 1880, Sturtevant had moved to Boulder where he supported his wife Anna and children as an artist and painter. With partner William K. Mehollin, he painted houses, signs and theater scenery and also hung wallpaper.
In 1884, Sturtevant turned his talents to photography. His wife and children helped him in the business, selling mounted cabinet-sized (3 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches) photographs of Boulder scenes for 10 cents apiece. Sturtevant had several studio locations, but at least two were named “The Cabinet” because of his specialty.
In addition to landscapes and buildings, Sturtevant took portraits and photos of groups of people. He used large glass-plate negatives in his large-format camera and did his own developing. He took several self-portraits, wore various styles of clothing and liked to experiment with double exposures.
Sturtevant also had a way with the ladies. For instance, he enjoyed taking a stagecoach filled with tourists for a drive in the mountains and made a point of learning the names of the young women on his tour. If, for instance, one was named Mary, he would point with a flourish to a mountain and say, “There is Mount Mary.”
Anna died of cancer in 1904 at the age of 45. Afterward, Sturtevant took to the bottle. He found a new bride, but the marriage didn’t last. He had also started, but never finished, an illustrated book of poetry titled “Sparkling Gems of the Rocky Mountains.” His topics were humorous as well as sentimental and always displayed his deep affection for Boulder.
While photographing in the mountains, Sturtevant communed with nature and wrote, “Many savage nations worship trees, and I really think my first feeling would be one of delight and interest, rather than of surprise, if some day when I am alone in the woods if one of the trees were to speak to me.”
Toward the end of his life, a newspaper account stated that he fell from some high rocks, was nearly gored to death by a deer and had “many other little accidents which give spice to life.”
Then, in 1910, he was found dead on the railroad tracks between Denver and Boulder. It was assumed that he didn’t have the fare for the Interurban Railroad and fell as he tried to jump onto a moving train. His end was tragic, and his legacy lives on.
Joseph and Anna Sturtevant are buried in Boulder’s Columbia Cemetery. Sturtevant’s photos are archived in Boulder’s Carnegie Library for Local History, 1125 Pine Street.