Silverton

Silverton. Colorado. , "One feels," wrote an early Silverton settler, "as if he is shut off from the rest of the world." A fair assessment: In 1874, when its first buildings appeared, the hamlet lay 125 miles from the nearest post office. Though railroad service commenced in 1882, snowdrifts often blocked the tracks for weeks on end. To compound the isolation, Silverton's climate and topography made farming almost impossible, leaving residents basically dependent on food shipped from elsewhere. But the area's rich mineral deposits - not just gold and silver but also iron, lead, zinc, and copper - assured Silverton's prosperity for many decades. Over time, ironically, remoteness proved to be an asset; it preserved the town's scenery and Victorian character, spurring a robust tourist industry in the mid-twentieth century. One might still feel shut off from the world here - but now that's part of the attraction., Flu Epidemic of 1918 , The influenza epidemic of 1918 killed 600,000 Americans, but few communities suffered as Silverton did. The virus appeared here in mid-October, and for the next terrifying month the streets stood abandoned; schools and businesses shut down, and residents locked themselves in their homes. Despite these precautions, three in four people got sick, and one in ten died - perhaps the nation's highest fatality rate. Patients overwhelmed the hospital and filled makeshift wards in Town Hall. Silverton's undertaker and one of its nurses died; people healthy enough to flee the contagion were turned back at Ouray by armed patrols. In December the scourge finally departed, but the ensuing years brought hard times. Silverton's mining industry faltered after World War I (which ended during the epidemic), crippling the local economy. It would take decades for the town to recover., Captions , 1. Tremont Saloon and Brothel owner Celeste Fatore and his wife (the madam and bouncer), Big Tillie, stand at far left, 1920s. For many years, Silverton men far outnumbered women and a proliferation of saloons und bordellos sprouted along Blair Street to keep lonely miners company. , Colorado Historical Society , 2. Silverton Standard pressroom, about 1910. John R. Curry published Silverton's first newspaper, the La Plata Miner, in 1875. In the 1880s and 1890s, thirteen other papers arose to compete. To survive, the Miner merged with the Standard, and today the Silverton Standard and The Miner is western Colorado's oldest continuous business and newspaper. , Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection , 3. Silverton Weekly Miner, November 1, 1918 - the height of the flu epidemic. , Colorado Historical Society , 4. Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection . This historical marker was erected in 2002 by Colorado Historical Society and Colorado Department of Transportation. It is in Silverton in San Juan County Colorado