Hollywood’s greatest curse is that it makes the past appear so clean.

Which is why photographs like this are so important.

I call it the “Gift of the Split Second.”

This is an excellent example of the “Gift of the Split Second.”

In October of 1911, in one split second, a photograph captured a reality. This photograph of Front Street in Ruby during the Alaska Gold Rush would never make it into a history text book because, well, it’s just too dirty. Every street in Ruby was like this. You stood in mud to load your wagon.  You were splashed with mud as you rode along. You tracked mud into your home. Along with horse manure from the street. And it was mud, mud, mud until the street froze.

Text book publishers, Hollywood directors and history teachers want the past to be glorious.

There’s not a lot of glory in this photo.

But that’s the way it really was.

THE HUMAN FACE OF THE ALASKA GOLD RUSH, www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi.