Volume 5: Telluride/ Ouray/ Ophir
These mountain towns are gems in Southwest Colorado. Telluride and tiny Ophir are in San Miguel County, and Ouray, not far away if unimproved roads aren’t a barrier, is located in Ouray County. Telluride is the most populous (about two thousand residents) and best known of the three, home to a famous ski resort, many well-known music festivals, and exclusive luxury homes. Telluride’s colorful history as a hard-rock mining town where gold, silver, and tellurium were extracted beginning in 1878 changed dramatically in the 1970s when the Telluride Ski Resort opened. Telluride’s elevation is 8,750 feet above sea level, a bit higher than Ouray’s 7,792. (source) Fewer than 1,000 people call Ouray home, but each year many thousands of tourists visit the charming village, nicknamed the “Switzerland of America.” Like most mountain towns in the region, Ouray was founded on mining (gold, in this case), made accessible by the railroad, and popular with visitors. (source) Ophir, Colorado, is the highest in elevation of these three towns at 9,695 feet. Gold was discovered in 1875, and the town was founded in 1881, but the mines decreased until there was only one resident in 1970! Telluride’s popularity in recent has allowed a few hundred residents to call Ophir home. (source)
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- Lake Molas and Needle Mt's. on D-S-O Highway
- Lake Molas and Needle Mountains on the Durango-Silverton-Ouray Highway; a real photo black and white postcard, produced during the White Border era.
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- Lake San Cristobal, Lake City, Colo.
- A black and white photograph of Lake San Cristobol, in Lake City, Colorado. The town of Lake City can be seen on the opposite side of the Lake San Cristobol.
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- Last Narrow Gauge Ore Train Ophir Loop Colorado
- Postcard with a picture of a narrow gauge train going through snowy mountains
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- Liberty Bell Mill (Telluride, Colo.)
- Liberty Mill, a series of wooden buildings with corrugated tin roofs, is pictured in front of steeply sloping cliffs and, above and lower down, slopes vegetated by green meadows, shrubs, and spruce.
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- Liberty Bell Mill and Smuggler Mills in distance
- Liberty Bell Mill and Smuggler Mills in distance.
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- Liberty Bell Mine (Telluride, Colo.)
- Image of a mine, wooden buildings with snow covered cliffs behind.
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- Liberty Bell Mine, West Telluride, Colo.
- Liberty Bell Mine, a small group of wooden and corrugated shacks perched precariously on a mountain slope, with a mountain striated with snow in the background.
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- Liberty Bell boarding house and tramway (Telluride, Colo.)
- Liberty Bell Boarding House horse in the front mountains in the background.
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- Lizard Head (Telluride, Colo.)
- The rock formation, Lizard Head Peak, sits above hills of spruce and snow covered meadows.
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- Lizard Head Peak and Lizard Head Pass - Alt. 13,156 ft. - between Telluride and Rico, Colo.
- Lizard Head Peak and Lizard Head Pass, altitude 13,156 feet, between Telluride and Rico, Colorado.
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- Lizard Head Peak on Hwy 145 in the San Juan Basin
- Lizard Head Peak on Hwy 145 in the San Juan Basin. A real photo postcard.
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- Lizard Head from Dolores County State Highway (Colo.)
- Photographic print image of Lizard Head at right side of image. Clouds hang overhead; a vehicle is faintly visible in the dark exposed foreground of meadow and trees.