In 1977, Ingrid Lundahl began photographing the rebel spirit of Telluride, for fun and as a professional.
Thirty-seven years later, she shares some classic moments in her recently released book “Telluride: The Outlaw Spirit of a Colorado Town.”
When she arrived in the 1970s, the Sheridan bar was full of plaid shirts and duct-taped ski jackets with “beautiful women who drank one-for-one with the guys.”
Horses were regularly led into bars and served drinks, while obvious narcs in a red Trans Am trolled the streets looking for where “They hide up in Telluride” as the Glenn Frey cliché goes.
“Everybody’s been seduced by Telluride. The outlaw spirit was palpable,” writes Lundahl.
Really not a whole lot has changed. Except that Telluride has since been “discovered,” so now celebrities rub shoulders with regular ski bums on the slopes and at bars.
“I would check on my town’s heartbeat as my negatives hung to dry,” says Lundahl.
The star sightings began soon after locals Billy Mahoney and Johnnie Stevens placed five lifts on the mountain in 1972. The Telluride Film, Blues, and Bluegrass Festivals accelerated the process.
Frozen-in-time are Robert Redford, Jimmy Stewart, Laura Linney, Peter O’Toole, George Clooney, and Penelope Cruz, Sean Penn, Clint Eastwood, Candice Bergen, Nicholas Cage, and Robin Williams to name a few.
Musical giants are also featured prominently in the large-format photo book. Sam Bush, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Buddy Guy, David Crosby, Johnny Cash, Greg Allman, Lou Reed and Etta James are all shown performing on stage to adoring audiences.
But Lundahl clearly relishes the local characters even more. The book is mostly about regular folks living in the fast lane, or taking it easy reveling in the epic scenery and ski-town culture.
“We outlaws would immobilize ourselves on benches, our faces tracked the sun, no place to go except Nirvana,” she pens.
There’s Rasta Stevie, notorious town council member from 1987 to 1993, and founder of the 8750 Reggae group, “the world’s highest reggae band.”
Watch out for Navajo Sam, who would hold up hikers at gunpoint on the Woods Lake trail and make them hand over their sandwiches.
Sheriff Bill Masters kept the peace, and still does, while allowing citizens to live free. As sheriff, Masters famously penned a well-read book slamming the insanities of the War on Drugs.
Homeboy Billy Nershi, of String Cheese Incident fame, got his start busking with his guitar in front of the Floradora. In a hilarious photo, Nershi is shown posing with General Schwarzkopf, who lived part-time in Telluride.
Ralph Dinosaur, a popular classic rock performer who prefers to wear women’s clothing, gets kudos. In one shot he is sporting a one-piece women’s swimsuit: “No one thought this was unusual.”
The standard crazies of mountain towns everywhere are also featured, such as Wacky Jack, who regularly shouted profanities at great volume on the street, “bizarre behavior that was tolerated and often encouraged.”
Or Patrick, who carried a very large wooden cross up and down Main Street for fun.
Lundahl chronicles the town’s signature moments as well, such as ceremonial virgin sacrifices, naked ski races, town board meetings encouraging anyone to speak anytime, and the Save Our Pigs fundraiser “to benefit our marshals busted for allegedly consuming cocaine from the evidence locker.”
Lundahl does a good job documenting the heady 1980s in Telluride, “before living in your car, a cave, in the woods, or sleeping in a free-box cubby was outlawed.”
She waxes poetic about her home town.
“In the heart of summer, we are breathing fresh mountain air and our country feels like a sweet land of liberty. What sealed the deal was the dazzling, in-your-face Rocky Mountains, and the outlaw spirit resounding down the slopes.”
For more information on her photography go to www.ingridlundahl.com
