Charles Stephen Phalen arrived in Salida in the summer of 1913 to do his medical residency at the Denver & Rio Grande Hospital at 448 E. 1st Street (today the Touber Building). Charles married Catherine McGrath in June 1915 and they lived at 645 F Street. When America entered World War I in 1917, Charles Phalen enlisted in the Army Medical Corps and by late summer, they had left Salida. Dr. Phalen established a medical practice in Sparta, Wisconsin, where he died more than sixty years ago.

These images are from a scrapbook that Catherine Phalen had saved, full of photos of a newlywed idyll in Salida, between 1913-1917. Snapshots show them on drives in the mountains, of scenes with guns and hunting dogs, with friends, and with each other. There are also images of hospital colleagues, and the operating room theatre at the Denver & Rio Grande Hospital.