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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- Main Street (Ouray, Colo.)
- Photo of downtown Ouray; drugstore on the right with two older vehicles parked in front of it; on the left is a sign for a Chevron Station many older vehicles are parked towards the other end of town mountain peaks overlook the town.
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- Main Street (Ouray, Colo.)
- Photo of downtown Ouray. The Beaumont Hotel is visible on the right side on the left an older vehicle is parked in the background cliffs hang above the town
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- Main Street (Ouray, Colo.) - Mt. Hayden in background
- Main Street - Ouray, Colorado, with- Mt. Hayden in background.
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- Main Street (Telluride, Colo.)
- Downtown Telluride man on a horse in a horse drawn cart [writing on the back] one cent stamp and addressed to Ollie Peggie Collins Telluride Colorado.
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- Main Street (Telluride, Colo.)
- Hand colored photograph of the Main Street of Telluride, Colorado. With horses hitched to a rail, and a horse drawn wagon coming down the street.
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- Main Street (Telluride, Colo.)
- Downtown Telluride; man on a horse and a horse drawn cart; snow covered peaks in the background.
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- Main Street Ouray, Colorado
- Photo of Main Street in Ouray, Colorado with a building labled Beaumont is visible.
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- Main Street of Telluride, Colorado
- Painting of downtown Telluride.
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- Main Street, Ouray, Colorado, after Cloudburst.
- Postcard with a picture of Main Street in Ouray with buildings and mountains in the background and downed trees and rubble
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- Main Street, Telluride, Colo.
- Main Street, Telluride, Colorado.
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- Main Street, Telluride, Colorado
- A photo of Telluride from the late 1970s or early 1980s with heavily snow covered mountains in the background.
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- Marshall Pass (alt. 10846 ft.), Colo., Mt. Ouray in distance
- Marshall Pass (elevation 10846 feet), with Mt. Ouray in the distance.