Two years later he, with another party, made his way up the Animas River and established the little town of Animas City, fifteen miles north of present Durango. There the settlers panned the river for gold and built the first bridge in all of southwestern Colorado, “Baker’s Bridge”. The panning Operation was not successful and, on news of the outbreak of the Civil War, the whole citizenry precipitately departed.
After the Civil War a young man by the name of Otto Mears moved into the Saguache country and went into the wheat raising and merchandising businesses. To get his wheat to market he had to start building roads. He ended up with about 450 miles of roads which laced together all of the mountain towns in the extremely rugged San Juan Mountains.
Mears served as Indian Commissioner for a number of years and, as such, negotiated several treaties with the Utes. The first one in 1868 forced them out of central Colorado, the second one in 1873 forced them out of the San Juan Mountains and the third one in 1881 forced them out of Colorado entirely.
The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad arrived in Durango in 1881 and in Silverton the next year. Meanwhile it was building another line from Salida to Grand Junction and arrived there in 1883. Four years later a branch was run from Montrose to Ouray.
The same year, 1887, the Silverton Railroad, one of the subjects of this booklet, started out of Silverton and was completed in 1889. The next one, also a Mears creation, was the Rio Grande Southern, built in ’90 and ’91, which ran from Ridgway via Telluride and Rico to Durango.
GLOSSARY
C. & S.—Colorado and Southern D. & R. G.—Denver and Rio Grande R. G. S.—Rio Grande Southern R. G. W.—Rio Grande Western S. G. & N.—Silverton, Gladstone and Northerly S. N.—Silverton Northern S. R.—Silverton Railroad (Railway) W. P. & Y. R.—White Pass and Yukon Railway
THE SILVERTON RAILROAD
The Silverton Railroad! The most intriguing piece of narrow gauge in the world! The railroad of the steepest grades, the sharpest curves, the crookedest loops, the highest altitude and the oddest switchbacks, on one of which sat a wye with a depot inside and on the other a housed-over turntable! And the railroad of the famous Otto Mears passes!