The La Plata Miner was the first newspaper, with John R. Curry of Iowa as editor and owner. Several years later the name was changed to the Silverton Miner, and since 1920 it has been called the Silverton Standard and the Miner. From 1874 it has never missed an issue. Still to be seen at the Standard office is the old 1830 Model Hoe original press which was used continually until a short time ago.
A road, barely passable, from Watson’s Cabin at Grassy Hill to Howardsville and Silverton by way of Stony Pass was completed. The grade from the cabin to timberline on this side of the pass was fairly good, but just below the timberline was a short, steep pitch which often defied the brakes. Freighters would cut a fair sized spruce tree and tie it on behind their wagons as a holdback over this pitch.
Silverton Standard Office, Taken in 1955, with D. & R. G. Conductor Myron Henry
When trees were no longer available, Squire (W. D.) Watson selected a solid stump at the top of the incline, and lowered the wagons by means of a snubbing rope. The price was $2.50 for about two-hundred feet, which made it pretty profitable. The summer travel was from five to twenty wagons daily. The freight rate at this time from Del Norte to Silverton was 30 dollars a ton, and remained so until the coming of the railroad.
The first United States District Court was held in Silverton, with Judge Hallett presiding. It seems the same faces were appearing in the jury box, and the reason was the benches were so splintery they had to choose men who wore leather seats in their trousers.
President Grant appointed J. M. Hanks as the first postmaster. For several weeks after the appointment, he could find no building suitable for a postoffice and carried the mail in his pockets and handed it out on the streets when he saw any of the addressees. Mail services were few and far between in the winter of 1875 and ’76. Twice, Big Alec Fleming brought in on his back a load of mail from Del Norte, wearing snow shoes or skis nearly every foot of the way.
Our first school was started this year. When the town was laid out, a lot on the corner of Snowden Avenue and Eleventh Street had been set aside for school purposes. The school served as a church or for any public gathering, and was a low, log building. In 1887 the school record states they had six visitors and 144 cases of tardiness. In 1879, the census showed forty pupils between the ages of six and twenty-one, and by 1890, the total school attendance was 153.
The start of the Durango-Silverton road was made in 1875. A crude mountain road reached from the present site of Rockwood for about sixteen miles to the top of Coal Bank Hill. Here the road ceased and the Old Ute Trail was used by pack animals for the remaining fourteen miles into Silverton. The old trail was used until about 1877 or ’78 when a prospector, with the help of others, built a toll road up the Animas Canyon. The road started north of Rockwood, crossed the site of what is now Lake Electra, then made a drop of 2,000 feet in a distance of one and a half miles to the bottom of the canyon. Here it crossed Cascade Creek at its junction with the Animas and continued up the river to Silverton, making many crossings along the way. A toll gate was located at the entrance to the canyon near the Champion Mine. There was also a toll gate at Baker’s Bridge below Rockwood, and the fee was $3.00. Many parts of the old road can still be seen from the train.
