P.Y. Thomas Groceries - Kokomo, Colorado

P.Y. THOMAS GROCERIES – KOKOMO, COLORADO

An amazing and rare large format albumen photo of a bustling business, that of P.Y. Thomas Groceries in the town of Kokomo, Colorado. This general merchandise store was the hub of the community through it sale of groceries, hardware, tinware, hay and grain, stationary, notions, powder, caps and fuse. Its only terms were cash. And… to make the photo even more interesting the word liquor has been whited out, probably at a very early date by some prohibitionist who was reprinting the photo and did not want the word present. So now the front of the store only reads Wholesale and Retail. There are 21 town characters in the photo including one woman and 4 children, 2 miners with their loaded pack mules and the Thomas buckboard being drawn by two horses and full of deliveries to the stores patrons.

As part of the Tenmile District, Kokomo at one time had over 10,000 residents. It was a booming silver and gold mining town, located not far from Climax. But, a devastating fire in the winter of 1881 burned most of the town to the ground. However, the town did rebuild and quite possibly this photo was taken post-fire, based on the fact that to the left of the grocery store are floor joist for a new building. However, by the time the town was rebuilding most of the mines had played out and what was left of Kokomo merged with the neighboring town of Recen (sometimes spelled Racen). Today, most of Kokomo is pretty much under the tailing pile from the Molybdenum Mine and both Kokomo and Racine are ghost towns.

Albumen print. 5 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches; mount 8 x 10 inches. On the verso is written Racine, Colorado. This attribution is wrong as the store was in Kokomo, Colorado. Vg cond.