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)
Pages
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- Autumn in the Valley, Ouray, Colorado, San Juan Mountains.
- View of the Ouray valley in the fall. This is a duplicate postcard, retained because it was written on, postmarked (in August of 1973), and mailed (to Mr. and Mrs. Warren Beach, Shawnee Mission, Kansas).
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- Autumn on Owl Creek Pass in Uncompahgre National Forest near Ridgway and Ouray, Western, Colorado.
- Autumn on Owl Creek Pass. The mountain in this view are two of the sheerest in the rugged San Juans: 11.785 foot Chimney Peak on left, 12,165 foot Courthouse Mountain on right.
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- Autumn woods at Rico, Colorado
- Autumn woods at Rico, Colorado.
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- Bear Creek Falls
- Color vertical view of Bear Creek Falls looking down, given scale by a tour bus on the highway above the falls.
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- Bear Creek Falls
- View of cars parked along the Million Dollar Highway just outside Ouray, Colorado, above Bear Creek Falls.
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- Bear Creek Falls (near Ouray, Colo.)
- Bear Creek Falls.
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- Bear Creek Falls (near Ouray, Colo.)
- Hand tinted photograph of Bear Creek Falls.
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- Bear Creek Falls (near Ouray, Colo.)
- View of waterfall running down against cliffs above waterfall to the left of the falls there is a single pine tree with a dead pine leaning against it
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- Bear Creek Falls (near Ouray, Colo.)
- Bear Creek Falls seen from the Million Dollar Highway near Ouray, Colorado.
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- Bear Creek Falls (near Ouray, Colo.)
- Bear Creek Falls near Ouray, Colorado.
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- Bear Creek Falls (near Ouray, Colo.)
- View of waterfall running down against cliffs a bridge is above the waterfall, a date is written on the front Aug. 22-09 [writing on back] addressed to Mrs. Gus Hesker with a postmark and a one cent stamp
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- Bear Creek Falls (near Ouray, Colo.)
- View of waterfall running down against cliffs above waterfall are pine trees.