Louis Papa Canvas Print

Sculpture of Louis Papa by Pat Kennedy in Benson Sculpture Park, Loveland, Colorado.

Story by Kenneth Jessen -

In her co-authored book, “Historical Images,” Loveland historian Zethyl Gates wrote this about Louis Papa, “Louis was silent about his past. If he revealed any information, it was scant indeed. What a loss. What tales he could have told about the Western frontier of the 1800s: life with the mountain man Mariano Medina, who raised him as his own son; early days near Fort Bridger, where the family lived in the ‘squaw’ camp of Uncle Jack Robinson; Indian raids on the Overland Trail; and life at Namaqua, early settlement at the crossing of the Big Thompson River…”

The story of Louis Papa begins when Mariano Medina was camping along the Snake River in Utah Territory during 1844. He met a French trapper by the name of Louis Elbert Papin.

The trapper had a wife from the Flathead tribe name Tacaney. Papin wanted to quit the harsh, dangerous li...

Photography is all about using light to capture the emotion and beauty of a fleeting moment. For me, this adventure began with a single spring image using a small Kodak film camera of a freshly watered central Kansas ditch and has come full circle using modern digital techniques. My first camera was acquired by trading an ancient Royal typewriter to a fellow college student who was desperate to finish a term paper. It was a long time ago and that camera was my passport to an art that has fascinated me ever since. I owned and operated a professional studio in central Kansas for 20 years and moved to Colorado in 1994. Part of the studio's early success came from creating outdoor portraiture using controlled lighting...