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Ouray in Ouray County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)
 

Untold Stories

 
 
Untold Stories Marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By James Hulse, July 9, 2021
1. Untold Stories Marker
Inscription. Nineteenth-Century Newspapers
At one point in the 1880s, Ouray newspaper publisher David Day had forty-two libel suits pending against him-and he wore them like a row of combat medals. Day's broadsheet, the Solid Muldoon, placed less emphasis on fair and accurate reporting than it did on promoting Ouray's commercial interests. That made it typical of Colorado's frontier newspapers, which routinely printed rumors, personal attacks, racist invective, and flat-out fabrications-all in the name of hometown promotion. Day waged running campaigns against Rico, Dolores, and Silverton, which competed with Ouray for business and thus threatened its prosperity; he also lobbied relentlessly for the dispossession of the Utes, who then held title to much of the San Juans. Slanted though they were, publications such as the Solid Muldoon were the only news sources available, making them very influential in shaping opinion-and events.

Soiled Doves
The few women who lived on Colorado's early mining frontier included a significant number of prostitutes. Coming west from various backgrounds and for various reasons, they often wandered like the gold seekers they served, stopping wherever fortunes appeared promising, moving on when better prospects surfaced elsewhere. And good prospects abounded in the mining camps, which
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possessed free flowing cash, decidedly loose morals, and a constant demand for companionships. Whatever decorum did exist usually came from the prostitutes, who enforced codes of conduct within their establishments and prettified their communities with ladylike touches. Their lives were very hard and often degrading, but these "fallen women" nonetheless claimed a measure of independence and self-sufficiency, far more so than their "respectable" Victorian counterparts. Indeed, they helped pave the way for the arrival of more genteel women who, ironically, condemned the prostitutes as morally corrupt and socially undesirable.

Captions
Middle Left: As Ouray quickly evolved from a rough mining camp to a settled and stable community, the economic options for women expanded to embrace more socially acceptable careers, like teaching.
Colorado Historical Society
Lower Left: By 1916 Ouray's women had become the vanguards of moral and social reform, spearheading an effort that resulted in local prohibition in 1916.
Colorado Historical Society
Center: Many women earned their living in saloons in the early years of Colorado's settlement plying a variety of trades, from barmaids to prostitutes. Though the women like these in Ouray's Temple of Music saloon risked the moral condemnation of more staid
The Untold Stories Marker is the marker on the left of the two markers image. Click for full size.
Photographed By James Hulse, July 9, 2021
2. The Untold Stories Marker is the marker on the left of the two markers
citizens, they nevertheless were able to sustain themselves in the precarious mining-camp world.
Courtesy Ouray County Historical Society
Upper Right: David Day's Solid Muldoon engaged in all of the excesses of nineteenth-century western newspapers, including the publication of rumor, fabrication, and racist doggerel like the poem on this 1889 front page.
Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
 
Erected 2003 by Colorado Historical Society and Colorado Department of Transportation.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: CommunicationsIndustry & CommerceNative AmericansWomen. A significant historical year for this entry is 1916.
 
Location. 38° 1.001′ N, 107° 40.25′ W. Marker is in Ouray, Colorado, in Ouray County. Marker is on Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 0.1 miles south of County Highway 16, on the left when traveling north. The marker is located along US 550 Highway at a Switzerland of America Lookout Point. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Ouray CO 81427, United States of America. Touch for directions.
 
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 6 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Preserving the Past (here, next to this marker); San Juan Travel (here, next to this marker); Ouray Elks Lodge (approx. 0.3 miles away); Beaumont Restoration
The view of Ouray from the marker image. Click for full size.
Photographed By James Hulse, July 9, 2021
3. The view of Ouray from the marker
(approx. 0.4 miles away); It's Our Fault (approx. 0.4 miles away); This Marker in Memory of Rev. Marvin Hudson (approx. 3.4 miles away); Larson Brothers Mine (approx. 5˝ miles away); Ute Homeland (approx. 5˝ miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Ouray.
 
 
Credits. This page was last revised on November 27, 2021. It was originally submitted on November 27, 2021, by James Hulse of Medina, Texas. This page has been viewed 167 times since then and 7 times this year. Photos:   1, 2, 3. submitted on November 27, 2021, by James Hulse of Medina, Texas.

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Mar. 29, 2024