On Main Street (U.S. 550) at 5th Avenue, on the right when traveling north on Main Street.
Built 1886
Abandoned 1967-1998 Restoration 1998-2003
"Presidents and Celebrities Gave It Fame, Dan and Mary Gave It Life." National Trust Awards Ceremony
2004 Inaugural Presidential Preserve America Awards
2003 Inaugural Colorado . . . — — Map (db m186920) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 30, on the left when traveling north.
The history of the Red Mountain Mining District mirrors the story told in countless boom-and-bust mining areas throughout the West. As prospectors, miners, cooks, freighters, prostitutes, gamblers, saloon keepers, boarding house operators, and . . . — — Map (db m179030) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 30, on the left when traveling north.
The history of the Idarado Mine goes back to 1896 with the creation of the Treasury Tunnel. In 1934 the San Juan Metals Company purchased the old Treasury Tunnel site and by 1937 a new 300-ton per day mill was in operation. In 1939 the Idarado . . . — — Map (db m179083) HM
You are standing at the Ouray Fault, the first step in the formation of Box Cañon Falls. Millions of years ago a deep crack in the earth caused the harder rocks to move upward, while the soft sedimentary rocks to the north moved downward. As you . . . — — Map (db m191376) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 0.2 miles west of County Highway 20, on the left when traveling east.
W.C. Davis and G.C. McGee recorded the Ida L. and Dauntless mining claims in 1888. In 1893 Davis sold his interest in these and other claims to W.F. Abrams of San Diego, California. McGee kept his interest until selling it to A.G. Bruner in 1910. . . . — — Map (db m238162) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 30, on the right when traveling north.
Panel 1 This region was founded by gold and silver miners in the 1870s. This 17-square mile area has produced 4 million ounces of gold, 21 million ounces of silver, and 12 million tons of lead, zinc and copper. The natural resources from . . . — — Map (db m179088) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 0.1 miles south of County Highway 16, on the left when traveling north.
Ouray was just eleven years old when the Beaumont Hotel celebrated its grand opening on July 25, 1887. The building immediately gained fame as western Colorado's most elegant hotel, marking Ouray as a place of wealth, importance, and permanence. For . . . — — Map (db m186905) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 31, on the left when traveling north.
Before...
Many of the creeks in the Red Mountain Mining District are devoid of aquatic life due to the natural geologic setting and historic mining. Within the thirty-square mile district over one hundred historic mines have been located. . . . — — Map (db m179029) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 0.1 miles south of County Highway 16, on the left when traveling north.
The San Juan Mountains have long posed a barrier to travel and, by extension, to economic development. Early miners had to transport ore via pack animals over rocky trails, a process so inefficient that it rendered many claims unworkable. Matters . . . — — Map (db m186903) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 30, on the left when traveling north.
Before you is the historic Red Mountain Mining District. In the early 1880s, valuable columns of silver ore called "pipes" were discovered in this valley and extraction began. By 1883, nearly forty mines were sending silver ore to smelters. . . . — — Map (db m179032) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 31, on the left when traveling north.
The Idarado Mining Company was founded in 1939 in a consolidation of mining claims including the Black Bear, Treasury Tunnel, Barstow, and the Imogene mines. In June 1943, work began to extend the Treasury Tunnel below the Black Bear Mine to . . . — — Map (db m179028) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 30, on the left when traveling north.
The eighteen-mile Silverton Railroad was truly a "little train that could." Incorporated by Otto Mears on July 5, 1887, this narrow gauge railroad connected the communities of Albany, Ironton, Guston, Red Mountain Town, Congress (Red Mountain . . . — — Map (db m179033) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 30, on the right when traveling north.
This is the eastern end of the Idarado Mine. As one of the San Juans' larger mines, it contains nearly 100 miles of underground tunnels. Miners would enter here at the Treasury Tunnel and ride the underground trams to their work station. The . . . — — Map (db m179085) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 2 miles south of County Highway 30, on the left when traveling north.
Before you, on the east side of Red Mountain Creek, is the headframe of the Yankee Girl Mine.
In 1882, prospector John Robinson discovered a massive "pipe" of silver ore and staked the Yankee Girl claim. He developed an exploratory shaft and . . . — — Map (db m179031) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 1.5 miles south of Highway 18, on the right when traveling north.
Who were swept to their deaths 1,000 feet north of this marker in the East Riverside Slide Sunday March 3, 1963 while answering the call to Christian duty of his pastorate in Silverton, Colorado
In Honor
Of the many friends & . . . — — Map (db m179139) HM
On Million Dollar Highway (U.S. 550) 0.1 miles south of County Highway 16, on the left when traveling north.
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 . . . — — Map (db m186909) HM
Otto Mears was a Russian immigrant known as the "Pathfinder of the San Juans." He developed a network of toll roads and narrow gauge railroads that established the routes of most of this area's highways.
Mears' crowning achievement was the Rio . . . — — Map (db m199594) HM
