The County Court House was completed in 1908 at the cost of $100,000.00, and at that time was one of the best in the state. On the court house lawn is a monument studded with samples of many ores from one hundred mine areas.
Mr. Carnegie donated the funds to build and equip our library, which is located on the corner of 10th and Reese Street.
Silverton Public Library
County Court House Taken From The Upper End of Greene Street.
The first automobile to reach Silverton came over Stony Pass on the 26th of August, 1910. It was owned and driven by Dr. D. L. Mechling of Denver. The car made the trip up the Rio Grande—the same route used by the pioneers in the ’70’s. Much road work had to be done as they went along. At the last steep pitch, horses had to come to the rescue and pull the car to the top of the Pass, which has an elevation of 12,500 feet. On the top of the Pass they saw two women and a man, the latter waving high the American Flag. They had walked and climbed some ten miles to be the first to greet the travelers. As they started down the Pass they were greeted every few hundred yards by people waving and shouting. They finally reached Silverton and came to a stop in front of the City Hall. Bells were ringing, the band struck up a tune, and the whole town turned out to welcome the party. The car was a thirty horsepower Croxton Keeton, a model patterned after a French Flinch by Renault, but built in United States at cost of $4,500.00. The next day, with the assistance of the county team, the car succeeded in getting to Ouray.
Mr. E. Buchanan, the County Attorney, owned the first car in Silverton, a one-cylinder 1911 Cadillac. He didn’t use the car much, and the following year he sold it to Mr. Hinkley. With much sputtering and smoking, Mr. Hinkley managed to get it down Reese Street. Two years later, Mr. H. B. Maris was the owner of the second car in town, a racy little four cylinder model without a top. This was the first car to make the trip to Ouray on its own power.
Early in October, 1911 a rainy season of several weeks duration caused a flood in the Animas Canyon washing out the railroad track, bridges and even the rock railroad bed. Consequently, Silverton had a nine weeks blockade. This came before the merchants had their supplies of goods, foods, and coal for the winter. This was of course, before the days of the highways, and we depended entirely on the railroad, but Silverton again came through without any real suffering, and even had the courage and foresight to erect the present school building at this time.
