01
About the Artist
I was born in 1950. My mother was an amateur watercolorist and a lover of art. Both my youngest sister and older brother, like myself have since gone on to be painters, I’m guessing it was from her influence.
It was in 1973 I moved to Gilpin County, Colorado from the East Coast. While living in this rural mountain county, I commuted 60 miles a day/5 days a week to Denver where I attended the Rocky Mountain School of Art, on the corner of Colfax and Ogden. There, I studied under Phillip Steel, a specialist in figure painting. Following my training in Art School, I worked as a laborer on the Denver Rio Grande Rail Road changing rail through the mountain passes. I also worked as a lumber jack and as janitor for a dentist in Boulder while I continued to paint.
In 1983 I moved to the coast of South Carolina, drawn there by the Spoleto, Arts Festival and the hope of advancing my career as a painter. During the next 15 years on the Carolina Coast, I continued to produce paintings. My work hung in several galleries, as well as having one person exhibits and participating in juried competitions.
While living in South Carolina I took work in the film industry where I worked on feature films, television projects and commercials. During this period, I produced several of my own documentaries including the award winning “DEADHEADS,” a documentary about the followers of the rock band, The Grateful Dead.
Leaving the film industry behind in1999, I returned to Gilpin County, Colorado where I wrote and published my first novel “A LIFE AT HIGH ALTITUDE” .
I reside there to this day and at 72 years old (2022) continue to paint.
02
The Building
My wife Bethany and I bought a beat up old house in a Ghost Town (Russell Gulch, Colorado) at 9,000 ft. above sea level in the Rocky Mountains an hour west of Denver in 1999. Russell Gulch had been a mining camp near the place where gold was first discovered in Colorado in 1865. When gold mining went belly up (sometime around the 2nd World War) the town was largely abandoned. Beth and I spent the following years restoring the old Miner’s Victorian to it’s former glory while we carved out a life for ourselves in the old Ghost Town.
Bordering the east boundary of our 20 acres, at the end of a dead end dirt road in a spot that the pine, aspen and cottonwood trees were reclaiming stood a decaying but enchanting old cottage. We were not long in Russell Gulch before we learned the story of the old house. The cottage was the local haunted house known as the “MURDER HOUSE” a name given after a double murder that occurred in the house in 1904. The house had been vacant for some 40 years and was now inhabited by rodents and ghosts.
In 2015 we heard that the owners of the “Murder House” were putting the old place up for sale and we bought it. Over the ensuing years Beth and I restored the old cottage and have converted it into the RESIDENT ARTIST OF RUSSELL GULCH, STUDIO/MUSEUM featuring over 80 samples of my paintings covering some 55 years as an artist.
The Studio/Museum is open to visitors from June to October. Come to the Ghost Town and meet me as well as viewing many of my original works in oil, watercolor, pastel and pencil.
03
Location
Local Directions: From I-70: Take the Hidden Valley/CentralCity Parkway exit #243. Go 7 miles to Lake Gulch Rd. Exit parkway and turn left on Lake Gulch Rd. Go 0.3 mile to Virginia Canyon Rd, turn left and go 1.5 miles to Russell Gulch Rd, turn left, the Ghost Town Course is 0.5 mile on the right.
*** Do NOT use GPS directions that take you off I-70 at exit 238 up York Gulch Road. Not passable. Use the Central City Parkway route.
04
History
AWFUL MURDER — The Erie News April 15, 1904 — Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection
CONFESSION OF A. D. GALBRAITH Bodies of Murdered Wife and Child Found in a Lonely Cabin In Russell Gulch. Denver, April 10. —Azel D. Galbraith, who was arrested Friday for forgery, was discovered last night to have murdered his wife and nine-year-old son, Donald, on or about last March 9th, and to have left their bodies in the lonely cabin at Russell Gulch, where the murder was committed. With the announcement of Galbraith’s arrest, friends living in Russell Gulch instituted a search and discovered the bodies in bed, where they had lain a month. Galbraith had removed all suspicion by stating that his family had gone to Boston.
Galbraith made a complete confession of the murder to Chief of Police Armstrong and Detective Captain Connor last night. Smoking a cigarette and some times smiling, he related the awful details without a tremor.
The only thing about which the police are undecided is Galbraith’s motive. Galbraith evidently bad intended to take his own life after the murder of bis wife and child, but, as Chief Armstrong told him, he “lacked the nerve.”
It Is thought by the police that the whole motive for Galbraith’s crime lay in his infatuation for Mrs. Lottie Russell of 18 Twenty-second avenue. Ho denies this and claims that his motive was the financial straits into which he had brought himself by gambling, drinking and following women. Mrs. Lottie Russell was arrested last night and after an interview with Chief Armstrong and Captain Connor she was locked up to be held until the arrival of Sheriff Thomas Cody of Oilpin county. She is not thought to havo known anything of the murder.
“Did you kill your wife and boy?” asked Captain Connor of Galbraith.
“I did,” replied Galbraith. “I killed my wife and boy early In the morning. I shot my wife through the head while she was talking to me. We were in bed at the time and she never moved afterward.
‘‘Then I went to the door of the house and called the boy down and coaxed him to get in bed beside me. after I had covered up his mother’s head, and when he turned his head to look out of the window I shot him through the head.
“Then I dressed and got on a quartz wagon. I drank all the whisky In the house before I left. I rode on the quartz wagon to Idaho Springs and stayed there two or three days drinking. I came to Denver March 14th.”
Galbraith’s murder of his wife and child Is regarded as one of the most cold-blooded crimes ever committed. Galbraith admitted that he had been planning the double murder for nearly a month before he committed it. It was reported in Denver last night that indignation was at white heat in Gilpin county and it is thought that If Galbraith is taken back there at any time soon an attempt will be made to lynch him.
Galbraith and his wife had known each other from childhood. They were schoolmates and had always been considered a devoted couple.
He probably will be held in the city jail in Denver for an indefinite time. Both Galbraith and his wife were reared in and around Fort Collins, where they were very well known. Many relatives live there. Sheriff John A. Cross of Fort Collins came to Denver last night as an agent of Galbraith’s sister to see what could be done to have him cleared of the forgery charge.
With the utmost composure Galbraith related the details of his crime. He told how he had shot his wife and son and afterward picked the bullets out of the bedclothing and carried them in his pocket for several days. About April 1st he returned to the cabin, where he took out all the furniture except the bed on which lay the bodies of his wife and boy, and hauled It away to sell it.
It was early In the morning that Galbraith, lying beside his wife, shot her. Their nine-year-old boy. Donald, had dressed and gone out on the side of the hill to play. After killing the mother Galbraith went to the door and called the boy down to him. He covered up the form of his wife and persuaded the child to He down on the bed beside him. Then when the boy turned his head to look out of the window, he shot him, too.
After the murder Galbraith wanted to get away from the scene of his crime and went to Idaho Springs. He remained in Idaho Springs drinking, for three days, and came to Denver on March 14th, going to the Brown Palace hotel. He said last night that he had not drawn a sober breath since killing his wife until he became sober afer his arrest Friday afternoon by Detectives Carberry and Sanders. When he was arrested Galbraith had In his pocket the revolver with which he had killed his wife and boy, but he made no effort to use it.