The Wild West photos that were colorized in the 1880s, 100 years before Photoshop was invented, show the harsh reality of the Colorado Gold Rush

Fascinating color images from 120 years ago capture what life was really like in the Wild West and reveal the harsh reality of the Gold Rush-era.

Stunning color images dating from just before the turn of the 19th century depict a rugged cowboy brandishing a lasso, a thoughtful miner enjoying a smoke in the doorway of a dug-out cabin, and a pioneer merchant plying his wares from a ramshackle wooden shop.

Many of the photochroms were captured in Colorado during the 1880s and 1890s, where a gold rush in the 1850s drew crowds of hopeful prospectors looking to make their fortune.

Gold was first discovered in Colorado by a group of Cherokee on their way to California when they found flecks of the precious metal in a stream bed in the South Platte basin, near present-day Denver.

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