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San Juan Skyway
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Segment 2: Otto Mears and the Construction of the Million Dollar Highway
Standards-Based Themes: Check chart
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Otto Mears
Ten years after gold was first discovered in California, prospectors began peering into streambeds and chipping away at rocks in what is today the state of Colorado. In 1858, just outside the present-day city of Denver, gold was found. From that point until the mid-1890s, the promise of riches from precious minerals brought thousands of people to the central Rocky Mountains. |
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By 1860, prospectors had made their way south into the San Juan Mountains in search of their fortunes. Although the region yielded substantial amounts of the yellow metal, the discovery of silver in the 1870s also became a source of wealth for many. Together, the gold and silver deposits of the San Juan Mountains established the area as one of the richest mining regions in the United States.
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| Striking it rich with pick and shovel was not the only means to attaining wealth in the San Juan Mountain region. At the sites of major gold and silver strikes, mining camps sprang up overnight. In areas of high productivity, towns like Durango, Silverton, and Ouray developed out of the camps to become centers of commerce and recreation for the hard-working and hopeful miners. |
| One of the greatest problems of living and working in the gold and silver mines of the southern San Juan Mountains was getting supplies into the camps and towns and ore to the mills and smelters. In the mid-1860s, Otto Mears sought to remedy the transportation problems by beginning the construction of a series of toll roads between the various mining towns of southwestern Colorado. In all, Mears was responsible for the construction of at least 12 wagon roads. His greatest achievement, and a monument to human ingenuity, was building a stretch of road between Ouray and Silverton along the steep walls of the Uncompaghre Gorge. Known as the "Million Dollar Highway," this shelf road was constructed 500 feet above the floor of the canyon and covered a length of eight miles. The road, which took three years to complete, was finished in 1884. The road provided yet another artery of commerce and greatly enhanced the economic development of the region and its people. |
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