Part 2
The building of the D. & R. G. Railroad started northward up the Animas Canyon, a natural route, soon to be blasted out by the construction force. This closed the toll road, as much of the road was to be used for the railroad bed. The train reached Silverton July 18, 1882, over forty-five miles of one of the D. & R. G.’s most scenic routes. The first steel rails made by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Works of Pueblo went into this track at a price of $70.00 a ton. Previously, all rails had been made of iron. The pioneers thought their transportation troubles were over, but they soon learned the elements were unbeaten. Snowslides, washouts, and floods were unconquered, and there were plenty of all before too many years. However, the “Silverton” has the longest record of continuous operation of any narrow gauge railroad in the country, and does the greatest passenger business per mile of any scheduled train in the United States. Silverton’s first telegraph came with the arrival of the train service.
The rich discovery of the Yankee Girl Mine in Ironton Park made necessary a road from Ouray to Red Mountain, and Otto Mears, with his associates, built 12 miles. About half of this was cut into solid rock walls of the Uncompahgre Canyon. The road was then extended twelve miles from Red Mountain into Silverton. This Ouray-Silverton road, through the Uncompahgre Canyon and over the gorgeous Red Mountain, constitutes Mr. Mears’ most spectacular accomplishment, and still remains the most scenic of all Colorado highways. This was the route used by the famous Circle Route Stage for years. It was a daily service by stage coach and horses and later by automobile. There was a toll gate at Bear Creek Falls that operated from 1887 to 1900. A little cabin in which the attendant stayed, was built near the creek and a big pole laid across the bridge. When anyone drove up, he shouted for the toll keeper who came out, lifted the pole, and collected the fee, which was $5.00 for a single team, and $1.00 for each additional head of stock.
A water system for Silverton was built by a group of Denver and Kansas City capitalists. The source of supply was from Boulder Creek and a five-inch pipeline was laid from there to the present reservoir at the upper end of Greene Street.
The Grand Hotel was the finest, and an elegant structure when built in 1883. From without it looks exactly as it did when it opened; however, the inside was restored and refurbished in 1952. Originally, it had fifty-four rooms and three baths, but today offers travelers forty rooms with bath. The beautiful mahogany bar was built for the Grand in 1882 in Denver and shipped by the railroad in sections, and the three plate glass mirrors in the back bar are the originals purchased in France. Today it again is the finest of resort hotels, and is open the year around. This is the birthplace of the famous song, “There’ll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”. One night a stranger was sitting in the bar when the wife of a colored porter came hurrying into the hotel lobby saying, “If I don’t find that coon, there will be a hot time in this old town tonight”. The words inspired the stranger and he took a piece of paper from his pocket and wrote the song. The Hub Saloon, which was located in the Grand, never closed its doors nor locked its safe except to turn on the safety catch. One night a new porter twirled the tumbler and the place had to operate on borrowed funds until a safe man could get here from Denver to open it. Jack Slattery, owner of the Hub, once hired major league baseball players to play ball in Silverton just for his entertainment.
St. Patrick’s Church was organized, and in 1883 a new church building was erected. The colored people of the town purchased the old Catholic church building and had it moved to a lot on Mineral Street. This year the I.O.O.F. was instituted.
During the winter of 1883, mail was being carried from Silverton to Ophir on snow shoes by Swede Nilson. While he was getting ready to leave for Ophir, he kept looking at the grey sky, as it was snowing hard. His friends had tried to persuade him to wait until after the blizzard, but Swede knew how anxious the people in Ophir were to get their mail, as it was December 21—Christmas time. The postal attendant helped strap the thirty pound sack of mail on his back and was apprehensive as he watched him start off in the storm. Days passed with no word from Nilson and it was ascertained that he had never reached Ophir. At first everyone thought he had been caught in a snowslide, but when spring came, folks began to wonder. They searched the trail but he was not found that season. It was believed that there was considerable Christmas money in the mail sack and rumors circulated that the Swede had rifled the sack and skipped the country. Everyone had almost forgotten Nilson when in August 1885 he was found on the north side of the slope with the mail pack still on his back. He had been caught in a snow slide and buried under tons of snow.
In the winter of 1884, just two years after the arrival of the D. & R. G. into Silverton, a heavy storm with numerous snow slides closed the road for 77 days, from February 5th to April 22nd. Occasional mail was carried into town by volunteers, but foodstuffs not previously brought into town were done without.
The first census was taken in 1885, and showed a population of 1989 persons. At the town’s crest, the population numbered 5000.
In June, Otto Mears began the construction of the Silverton Railroad—a narrow three-foot gauge track of sixteen miles, including several switch-backs from Silverton to Red Mountain and Ironton Park. It was completed to Red Mountain in September 1889 and the Ironton stretch was completed in November, the same year. The road cost $75,000.00, at that time a large amount of money for one man to raise. This railroad made possible the shipment of low grade ores from the Red Mountain district to the Silverton Smelter for treatment. In 1889 Mears started construction of the Silverton Northern Railroad to tap the mining district north of Silverton. This line boasted a unique combination dining car and sleeper, with an extensive wine card printed in two colors and a menu whose items ranged from Porter House to Antelope cutlets. At the height of its fortunes it was one of the best money makers in the entire United States. At a time when passenger trains on main lines were grossing $1.00 a mile, the Silverton Northern four passenger runs a day were grossing $20.00 a mile, and freight trains of ore from the mines so rich that armed guards rode them all the way to the smelter in Durango. First Mears built five miles of track to Howardsville, then in 1894 he added four miles extending the line to Eureka. In 1903 he built another four miles to Animas Forks. The line to Eureka was used until the Sunnyside mine closed in 1939.
In 1889, San Juan County took advantage of the voting franchise for women and elected Nellie Tulley as the first woman treasurer of the state.
Gem Chapter Number 15, O. E. S. was organized in 1893 and in 1894 the Miners Union. In 1901, the Miners Union built their hall at an expenditure of over $35,000.00. The Union had a membership of over 1300.
The Silverton, Gladstone and Northerly was built in 1896 from Silverton to Gladstone to take care of the Gold King and other producing mines of the upper Cement Creek section. The train ran until about 1915, then was purchased by the Silverton Northern Railroad, and the track was later removed.
Among the ladies, there were two clubs. The Silverton Women’s Club was organized by Mrs. E. G. Stoiber in April 1897 and was admitted to the State Federation the same year. The San Juan Women’s Club was organized in January, 1900 and was admitted to the State Federation the same year and the General Federation the following year. The San Juan Club still functions, and has an active membership of 17.
St. John’s Episcopal Church of Silverton and Christian Science Church of Silverton were organized in 1898.
The latter part of August 1901, Silverton had its first telephone communication. The Colorado Telephone Company ran its lines from Denver through Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction, Delta, Montrose, Ouray and then into Silverton. The first telephone office was upstairs in the back room of the building now known as the Recreation Hall. Phones were installed as fast as equipment would allow. The first out-of-town phone went to the Sunnyside Mine at Eureka. It was a year before the lines to Durango were in and ready for use.
In 1901 the town of Silverton purchased for $40,000.00 the water works, formerly owned by a private company. They have since expended much more for improvements. Our water is still as clear and pure as the days when the first prospector slaked his thirst from the brim of his battered hat.
The privately owned electric light system broke down during Christmas week of both the years 1901 and ’02 on account of excessive demands for lights and power. The citizens voted bonds for a municipally owned utility and in 1903 the new system was in operation. This was the second alternating plant to be built in the United States. This year, Silverton also had a municipally owned sewer system which gave us the further distinction of being the first town to own all three—lights, water and sewer systems.
In 1903, the Silver Link Rebekah Lodge No. 93 was organized and the town jail, located behind the Court House, was erected.
About noon of March 10, 1906, a snow storm started and continued for over a week. During this time, every slide in the county ran. The greatest casualty in the county was the destruction of the Shenandoah boarding and bunk house causing the death of thirteen, and injuring several others. All told, the storm took the lives of over twenty people.
In 1907 the town engaged in the erection of a new City Hall at a cost of $40,000.00. The building was constructed of dark red stone from the Wyman Stone Quarry on South Mineral Creek.
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.
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.
In 1913 work was started in earnest on the highway from Durango to Silverton. The first car went over this part of the highway in the fall of 1918. However, the road was not officially opened for travel until 1920. Bill Compton, Roy Roff, Fred Salfisberg, Bob Lockwood and one or two others from the power company made the trip, which was a hard one. They had to lay planks across the culverts, as there were open holes. They encountered many difficulties, but finally reached Silverton with the glory of being the first car over the road.
In 1916, the road up to the Cement Fill was being constructed. Previously, the road went up South Mineral to Chattanooga Creek then turned and went up a very steep pitch to the present highway near Johnson’s Park. Usually passengers had to walk up this pitch to make the load lighter for the teams and also to give a push now and then.
The Sunnyside Mill was in operation in 1917 at Eureka. At first it handled 500 tons of ore per day, and later more units were added and 1,000 tons were put through daily, the company built and furnished a number of houses in Eureka for their employees and families. When production was at its peak, around four hundred were employed. In 1919 a terrific fire destroyed most of the buildings at the mine, and only the tram terminal and transformer house remained usable. The company rebuilt at once and mining continued on a large scale until December 1921, when they ceased operation due to the drop in the metal market. They reopened in 1922 and operated continually until 1930 in spite of a flood that washed out the railroad with no train for thirty days. They closed again until 1937 when the property reopened and operated for about eighteen months.
In 1918 the “flu” epidemic struck the area, with great loss of life. San Juan County probably had a greater proportion of deaths than any section of the nation. The usual percentage was about ten percent afflicted with the disease, of which about one or two percent died. Silverton suffered a loss of nine percent of our entire population within three weeks. Graves could not be dug fast enough, and it became necessary to bury in trenches. One trench contained sixty-two bodies.
The highway from Silverton to Ouray was dedicated in 1924 as the Million Dollar Highway. The dedication took place on the first large turn below the Treasury Tunnel Mine, and in 1926 a Memorial was erected at Bear Creek Falls in honor of Otto Mears, Pioneer Roadbuilder.
On March 8, 1927 the first airplane flew over Silverton. This flight was arranged by Representative E. J. Holman of San Juan County and was supposedly a “Mercy Flight” to the stricken snow bound people of Silverton as the train had been blocked for thirty-three days at this time. Letters, newspapers, and antitoxin were dropped north of town near the sub station. Helen Fleming, who still resides here, received a letter on this plane and was offered $5.00 for the envelope stamp by a stamp collector in California. She refused to sell, but her Mother sold one she had received at that time.
Then on May 24, 1932 a Travel Air six-place monoplane made a three-point landing on the Million Dollar Highway at the foot of Greene Street. The pilot, Walter Piele, brought the plane from Durango, and it was the first to land here. The pilot later lost his license for making the landing.
The last long blockade was in February 1932 and lasted ninety days. The slides came down, blocking the highways and railroad almost to Needleton. Supplies and mail were brought up the track from Needleton by mule pack train and men with toboggans freighted supplies from Ouray.
The following was taken from a Denver Post clipping of April 7, 1932: “For the first time in history of the postoffice department, it is believed, a ton of hay has been shipped by parcel post. This was revealed Wednesday in a report to the State Utilities Commission. The hay was badly needed to feed dairy cattle in the snowbound town of Silverton and was ordered by the Mullin Lumber Company of Silverton from the Farmer’s Supply Company of Durango. The Durango firm was unable to ship the hay by freight because the railroad stops sixteen miles from Needleton Pass. It was decided to throw the responsibility on Uncle Sam for the delivery of the hay. The hay was pressed into bundles to conform with the maximum size and weight specified for parcel post and offered to the postmaster at Durango. The postage amounted to $14.00. When the hay had reached the end of the railroad it was transferred to Silverton by pack mule at a cost to the post office department of 5c a pound. Thus, the post office department lost $86.00 on the transaction but the cows in Silverton will munch hay for a few days at least, and the children of the isolated town will have fresh milk again.”
Silverton’s ore reserves have been only “scratched”. This area is the most highly mineralized area in the United States, for in very few mining districts of the world are to be found the extensive variety of ores that abound in this country. Until 1893 no gold in the ore was paid for except when it was plainly visible to the naked eye or made a good showing in the pan. In the Sunnyside extension several hundred thousand dollars were taken out in free gold. Kendall Mountain and Silver Lake Basin have been the center of free gold discoveries at intervals since 1872. The first free gold in the country was taken from the Little Giant lode, three sacks of which were reported to have been worth $4,000 to $5,000. This was in 1872. In 1905 and ’06 the Old Hundred Mine produced considerable free gold, taking from $30,000 to $40,000 off the plates each month in a forty stamp mill.
Many of the mines used aerial trams to transport the ore over the surface to the mills and railroads. Among some of the larger trams are: Gold Prince, 13,000 feet; Sunnyside, 15,600 feet; Kittemac, 10,000 feet; Iowa Tiger, 14,375 feet; Silver Lake, 13,730 feet; Mogul, 10,000 feet; and Shenandoah, 10,000 feet.
Divided into forty prominent gulches, each one a fair sized mining district in itself, the county displays a vast network of big veins of low grade ore in addition to the occasional rich strikes. San Juan is the center of a mineral empire, with ore, coal, timber, water and power. It needs business men, builders of enterprise, to make fortunes for themselves and to bring out the great wealth that still lies in the mountains. The decline in mining activity in the county has been due primarily to the decline in metal prices—not shortage of ore.
Since the earliest records were kept, the county, through 1957, has produced $138,218,339 in gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. Gold has led the values in this county with a total of thirty-nine and a half million dollars; lead was a close second with over thirty-six million; silver third, with over thirty and a half million. Copper totaled $12,353,827, and zinc $19,406,616.
There are seven “Ghost Towns” in the immediate area; Howardsville, five miles northeast, is the location of the first court house. There were numerous buildings here including a post office and school, many of which still stand. Middleton, located in the 1890’s is two miles above Howardsville. It also had a postoffice and school and is the site of the Nugget and Kittemac Mines. Eureka, established in the 1870’s, became a ghost town in 1938. As I have previously mentioned, this was the site of the Sunnyside Mine and there were over six hundred inhabitants. One of the few remaining buildings you will see is the old town hall and fire house.
A few miles farther up the Animas River Canyon is Animas Forks, which was one of the busiest mining centers. The railroad served this place and the big activity was at the Gold Prince Mill. Animas Forks also supported a number of thriving businesses, including a fine newspaper, school and post office. The big attraction here today is the old jail, built entirely of 2 × 6’s and hand-forged window bars. The townsite was laid out in the late 1870’s and was deserted by 1923.
At the head of the Animas is Mineral Point. It was an important stage stop for the Silverton to Ouray stage coaches as this road was used while the present Million Dollar Highway was under construction. They boasted of having the highest post office in the United States. There is probably no area in the county where outcrops are so numerous and lodes and veins are so conspicuous, as in the area immediately surrounding Mineral Point. The summit of Mineral Point is formed of a heavy vein of nearly solid white quartz sixty feet wide.
Gladstone, located nine miles north of Silverton on Cement Creek, had a population of around 2000, and has now been a ghost town for probably thirty years. Chattanooga is northwest of Silverton on the Silverton to Ouray highway, established in 1878, and served by the Silverton Railroad—sometimes called the Red Mountain Railroad. The last school taught there was in 1902.
Silverton remains unspoiled. Here, unbelievably preserved, you can live today in the romantic atmosphere of old, for it is as it was at the turn of the century.
So perfect is the atmosphere of the town, particularly Blair Street with its two blocks of the original sporting houses and gambling dives, that film companies have used it numerous times.
Since the first, Silverton has run the gamut of hope and prosperity. Around it boom towns turned into ghost towns, but Silverton has gone on almost unchanged. The silver panic of 1893 and the national panic of 1907 wiped out many mining towns, but Silverton has become known as, “A Mining Camp that Never Quits”.
TRAIN SAVED ON I.C.C. DECISION
These were the headlines in the Silverton Standard, Silverton’s weekly newspaper on Friday, May 4th, 1962. The following is a copy of the article: