Basil Clemons Historic Photographer
Basil Edwin Clemons (1887 – 1964)
Basil Clemons was an early photographer and captured for posterity life in the “Boom” days of
early Breckenridge. The photographs are from a collection Mr. Clemons given to my grandfather and then to John Cook on a visit
to Mr. Clemons camp trailer on North Breckenridge Avenue in the late 1950’s. Many of the photographers
prints and negatives are scatter in collections including the Swenson Memorial Museum in Breckenridge and The University of
Texas at Arlington. In a conversation with a nephew, Billy Clemons, who was then serving as a state representative in the
Texas Legislature, I was told that Billy’s family had the camera that Basil Clemons used to take many of his photographs.
For further information on Basil Edwin Clemons go to the following link. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/fcl45.html
The University of Texas
at Arlington has an extensive collection of Clemon's photographs and negatives.
Basil Clemons was in Alaska before coming to Breckenridge and in an effort to locate
some of his photos from the Alaska era, I found his draft registration for WWI which is reproduced below as a matter of interest.
