Roads into the Mountains

Roads into the Mountains. . , You are traveling the Silver Thread Byway which traces the first roads through the San Juan Mountains. In 1874 the Saguache and San Juan Wagon Toll Road was built into this high valley. The following summer, the Antelope Park and Lake City Toll Road snaked over windswept Slumgullion Gulch , 11,000 feet high. Soon twelve freight wagons a day rumbled into Lake City. Passengers arrived in Concord stagecoaches drawn by teams of six matched horses. Said one passenger, “A trip on one of those coaches was something to be remembered.” Within a few years, toll roads defying the imagination linked the far-flung mining camps of the San Juans. Like the Silver Thread Byway, many of the old roads, as well as the Ute Indian trails, are part of today’s state highway system. , Otto Mears, Pathfinder of the San Juans , Otto Mears began life in Russia in 1840. Orphaned at the age of four, he was shunted among family members until he found himself alone in San Francisco. He was eleven years old. He survived by scouting out odd jobs. After a stint in the Union Army, he made his way to Colorado. Here he decided to build roads that would “unlock the riches” of the San Juans. “He had a natural gift for roadbuilding,” said one pioneer. “Going to the top of a divide he determined where he could lay out his road.” Between 1867 and 1886, Mears built 450 miles of toll roads, thus making it possible for generations of people to live and work in the San Juan Mountains. , [image captions] , . Ore wagons near Creede, Colorado, c. 1895 , . Toll roads built by Otto Mears, 1874 to 1885 , . Otto Mears, 1840-1931