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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- Reynolds and Carothers (Ouray, Colo.)
- Lithograph print of a colored drawing of a girl holding an umbrella as a water can pours water over the umbrella and while a robin perches on top. A dog wearing a hat is sitting next to her. To the left of the is a calendar of April 1912 surrounded be fool's hats.
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- Rico, Colo.
- A real photo view of a four-story brick building on a corner on main street in Rico, Colorado in winter. A house site on the left, and a mining bucket is suspended by cable wires on the left.
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- Rico, Colorado
- A black and white photo of a railroad station and tracks in the foreground behind some trees with Rico, Colorado behind. Buildings of a mining operation can be seen on the left side. Two mountain slopes frame the town in the back.
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- Rio Grande Southern Bus (Telluride, Colo.)
- Black and white photo of a railroad "bus: a box car with an engine up front with seating for the engineers. A few shrubs are in front with a grassy slope beyond the car. The side of the box car reads, "MOTOR No. 7, RIO GRAND SOUTHERN R.R. C.O." The passenger compartment has headlights and a grill like an antique car and is labelled "R. G. S. 7" Two passengers are visible.
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- Rio Grande Southern Depot, Ophir, Colo.
- A real photo postcard, produced during the White Border era. The train depot, a house and two other buildings, with part of another house visible on the left. It is sitting in fount of a small aspen forest with pine trees visible uphill.
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- Rio Grande Southern Railway snow shed, Lizard Head Pass (Colo.)
- Photographic print image of a shed covering a railroad. Several structures stand in a grassy meadow in foreground. Beyond these a thick conifer forest covers a mountain slope. In the far background left corner; snow covered peaks.
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- Road above Canyon Creek (near Camp Bird Mine, Ouray, Colo.)
- Photograph of a yellow Jeep heading down a steep canyon road under an overhanging rock on the shelf road above Canyon Creek, near Camp Bird Mine, Ouray, Colorado. Loose rocks and cliffs dominate the scene with a few meadows and forests on the more gentle slopes. A lake, town, and river forest can be seen in teh valley below.
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- Road to Camp Bird Mines, Ouray, Colorado
- A gravel road hugs the rocky cliffs to the left. To the right beyond the spruce tree, a mountain slope is covered in forest. A mountain appears in the distance.
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- Rocky Mountain (bighorn) sheep, Colorado
- A small group (10) of bighorn sheep are grazing on a slope where the snow has melthed by a large boulder and a tree.
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- Rocky Mountain sheep (Ouray, Colo.)
- Photo of numerous mountain sheep resting on a snow covered hill side.
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- Rocky Mountain sheep (Ouray, Colo.)
- Photo of two mountain sheep at the entrance of a cabin the whole area is snow packed another wooden structure is to the right of the cabin