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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- Pack Train, Telluride, Colo.
- Pack train, Telluride, Colorado.
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- Pack Train, Telluride, Colo.
- A pack train at Telluride, Colorado, showing mules hauling 12 foot lengths of lumber.
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- Pack train (Colo.)
- Color lithograph photo print image of pack mules hauling large beans up a steep incline.
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- Pack train (Colo.)
- Image of mules carrying lumber beams on a narrow path up a steep hill. Two horses on the right are horse and cattlemen are also in the view.
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- Pack train with a load of hay. May 1, 1932
- A photograph of a 15-mule pack train loaded with bags and bales of hay walking through snow along a railroad, They are led by a man on horse or mule. Telegraph poles run along the railroad in the foreground; spruce trees cover patches of the steep snowy slope in the background.
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- Packing concentrates (near Ouray, Colo.)
- Man on horseback leading a team of pack mules on a road next to river with mini-waterfalls a partial covered mountain peak is in the background
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- Packing lumber (Colo.)
- Mules carrying wood up a hill caption on the front states "Mule train on the old Smuggler Trail above Pandora, two miles east of Telluride
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- Pandora Basin (Telluride, Colo.)
- Valley with mountain at the end of it. A large structure is in view at the bottom of the valley. Some patches of snow are on the mountain.
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- Pandora Mill & Smuggler Mine, Near Telluride Colo.
- A black and sepia photograph of Pandora Mill and Smuggler Mine, near Telluride, Colorado. The mine is visible in the foreground, and snow covered mountains are in the background.
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- Pandora Park (near Telluride, Colo.)
- Waterfall in the background; structure in the foreground.
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- Pandora Park showing Smuggler and Liberty-Bell Mills (Telluride, Colo.)
- Pandora Park showing Smuggler and Liberty-Bell Mills, Telluride, Colo.; a real photo black and white postcard.
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- Panorama of Ouray, Colo.
- A panorama of Ouray, Colorado. The town and buildings of Ouray, Colorado are visible with mountains and trees in the background.