Qualla: Silverton, Colorado

Silverton, Colorado: Introduction

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Steven C. Price, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the single worst week of October 1918, 125 residents of Silverton perished from the Spanish Flu -- more than five percent of the town's population gone in seven days. By the time the pandemic relented the following March, 246 people had died, giving this isolated mountain town the highest mortality rate for the Spanish Flu in the entire United States. Silverton had always been a place that tested human endurance, perched at over 9,000 feet in the Animas River valley of Colorado's San Juan Mountains, ringed by thirteen-thousand-foot peaks, accessible only through passes that winter sealed shut for months at a time. Yet people kept coming back, drawn first by gold and silver, then by the sheer stubborn beauty of the place.

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Image: Steven C. Price | CC BY-SA 4.0

Silverton, Colorado: Baker's Park and the Rush for Silver

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit D&RG Railfan, CC BY 3.0. Silverton's story begins in 1860, when a group of prospectors led by Charles Baker pushed into the San Juan Mountains searching for gold. They found traces of placer gold in what became known as Baker's Park, but the real wealth lay deeper in the rock. Long before Baker's party a...

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Image: D&RG Railfan | CC BY 3.0

Silverton, Colorado: Boom, Bust, and the Last Mill Standing

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathunder, Public domain. Mining drove Silverton through cycles of fortune and collapse. The 1929 stock market crash shuttered the mines, but Standard Metals Corp. acquired operations in 1959 and reopened them, striking gold again in 1973 with the Little Mary vein. The final blow came in 1992 when the She...

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Image: Jonathunder | Public domain

Silverton, Colorado: The Railroad That Refused to Quit

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rainer Halama, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is Silverton's heartbeat. Originally built to haul ore out of the mountains, the rail line transitioned to carrying tourists as mining faded. In 1980, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad sold the Silverton-Durango line to an ...

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Image: Rainer Halama | CC BY-SA 3.0

Silverton, Colorado: Avalanche Country

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Greg Willis from Denver, CO, usa, CC BY-SA 2.0. The mountains around Silverton are unforgiving. In January 1906, an avalanche struck the Sunnyside mine, killing five miners. Only months later, twelve more died in a slide at the Shenandoah Mine -- one of the deadliest avalanches in Colorado history. The terrain that makes Silve...

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Image: Greg Willis from Denver, CO, usa | CC BY-SA 2.0

Silverton, Colorado: A Town Measured in Altitude

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adorabutton, CC BY-SA 3.0. Silverton sits in San Juan County, the highest county in the United States by mean elevation. The town itself is one of the highest incorporated communities in America. Its alpine subarctic climate brings very cold, snowy winters and brief cool summers. The local school serves ju...

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Image: Adorabutton | CC BY-SA 3.0