The Million Dollar Highway

The highway that climbs from Ouray is steep and sinuous. Now days we take it for granted and drive with ease along a paved road in our weather-proof cars. All we have to do is press the gas.
 
After the initial crest there is a large pull-out area. We arrive the same time as a group of bikers and we all get out to see the view.
 
Gushing from a seemingly sheer quartz cliff, a river of water shoots from the mountainside and cascades to a dizzingly deep canyon bottom. This is Bear Creek Falls.
 

Bear Creek Falls

My family and I stand at the railing and peek over the edge. Instant vertigo! One mishap here and you will not be coming back alive. Another crazy feature is that the highway passes directly over the waterfall. The construction of this road was definitely not a feat for the timid.
 
Nearby is a memorial in speckled granite. It offers a clue to who these not-so-timid people may have been. It reads: “IN HONOR OF OTTO MEARS, PATHFINDER OF THE SAN JUAN.  PIONEER ROAD BUILDER.   BUILT THIS ROAD IN 1881—ERECTED BY A GRATEFUL PEOPLE 1926”
 

Memorial to Otto Mears at Bear Creek Falls. 

In the early days of mining in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, traveling through this rugged area was not an easy task. Several pack trails existed in the area and mine operators would use burros or mules to haul out the ore. Each burro in the pack train could carry a load of 150 pounds, while the mules carried 300 pounds. Several men and hundreds of animals were needed for the task.
 
As more discoveries were being made in the Red Mountain area during the 1870's, it became expedient that a true wagon road be built to haul heavy items such as boilers, crushers, cables, ore cars, and pumps that were necessary to operate a large mine.
 
The towns of Ouray and Silverton competed for the privilege of processing and transporting the ore that came from the Red Mountain Mining District. As the crow flies, Ouray was roughly seven and a half miles to the north of Red Mountain, and Silverton a little over six miles to the south. The problem is that even a crow would have to fly up and over the majestic peaks that separate the two towns.
 

Red Mountain Creek

Continuing past Bear Creek Falls the highway negotiates the treacherous Uncompahgre Gorge. I drive with white knuckles because on my right side is a steep slope down to the river and there are no guard-rails! Luckily after about three miles the river and the road come to about the same elevation and at last I can relax. There are still tall mountains on both sides of the highway and I can only imagine what it would be like to be caught in a snow storm.
 
It is interesting that the river at this point has a reddish-yellow color to it. It is aptly named Red Mountain Creek, receiving it's color from mineral deposits.
 

The best way to describe the building of the wagon road from Ouray to Silverton is to compare it to patchwork—here a little, there a little. The Silverton side of the mountain was the “easiest” route route to Red Mountian. A rough path already existed between Silverton and Chattanooga, but only a brave person would dare drive a wagon over it. The merchants of Chattanooga got together and worked to upgrade the trail to a pretty decent wagon road. The final mile or two to the Red Mountain District was still a steep pack trail.
 
The Ouray side was more difficult because of the steeper terrain, especially through Uncompahgre Gorge. A road company was formed in 1877, but failed within a year, and had done little to improve the condition of the existing pack trail. In 1880 the Ouray and San Juan Wagon Toll Road Company was formed to upgrade most of the same route. During a three-year period work on the road progressed slowly. The steep quartz cliffs near Bear Creek Falls had to be blasted inch by inch.
 
Eventually the Ouray County Commissioners stepped in and took over the toll company. The planned road took a circuitous route compared to the highway of today. It would have left the modern highway route at the turnoff that goes to Engineer Pass along Uncompahgre Creek, and toward Mineral Creek. It would then head up Poughkeepsie Gulch and down Corkscrew Gulch to the Red Mountain Mining District. At the rate of the construction, it would be years until the road was completed.
 

Crystal Lake

After a series of steep S-turns in the highway, the mountain landscape opens up and the grade becomes relatively level. Red Mountain Creek slowly passes beneath the highway to the east side and abandoned wooden structures begin to dot the roadside.
 
On the west side of the highway is Crystal Lake. We decide to pull over and check it out. The water of the lake reflects the distant peaks of Red Mountain and the white cotton clouds that hang in the sky. The kids find flat rocks and skip them over the water. Although it is July, there is still a chill. I breathe in the fresh air and enjoy the green beauty that is all around.
 
Further along the road are more abandoned structures, those of Ironton Park. Although now a ghost town, Ironton was once a major hub between Red Mountain Town and Ouray, with 1,000 residents. I believe most of the buildings are hidden behind the trees, further off the highway. We stop to walk around some of the old structures. Some are well-preserved from the outside, while others have been plastered flat from heavy snows. There is no doubt that this would have been a rough place to live, especially during the winter.
 

Ruined buildings in Ironton Park.

According to P. David Smith's book, Mountains of Silver, many experts believe the Million Dollar Highway is the most avalanche-prone stretch of highway in the world. He states that even though mining camps such as Leadville had existed at equal or higher elevations, most received less snow or were located in terrain that was not as precipitous as the San Juan Mountains. A story is told of a pack train of two men and fifteen mules that were traveling from the Yankee Girl Mine to Silverton in 1883. One of the mules slid off the trail, and while it was wallowing in the snow a slide was triggered and swept the whole group down the mountain. One of the men and eight of the mules were killed.
 

The Million Dollar Highway.

After another S-curve, the highway climbs into the heart of the Red Mountain Mining District. Dominating on our right is the crimson-colored peak of “Red Mountain #3” at 12,890 feet in elevation. A long trestle stretches off to the side of the road and scattered all around are dozens of remnants from the mining days of yore, including a picturesque shaft house standing on the hillside.
 
We pull off into a parking area with several abandoned housing units nearby. The view is panoramic, reminding me that there is much more to explore. A person could spend days here driving on various graveled and dirt roads, hiking on- and off-trail, and still only scratch the surface of what this area has to offer in the way of history and beauty. An interpretive sign explains that during the heyday of Red Mountain, over thirty million dollars in silver, lead, zinc, copper, and gold were extracted. That would put the value to over a quarter-billion dollars in today's prices!
 
It is hard to fathom the work that went into building the highway. Only 11 miles from Ouray, I have arrived at Red Mountain with virtually no effort. Yet in 1882, miners and county commissioners were still struggling to create a road good enough for a wagon. They needed someone who could get the job done, and that's why they brought in Otto Mears.
 

Chief Ouray and Otto Mears.

Born of Jewish parents in the Russian Empire, in the area which is now Estonia, Otto Mears was orphaned at a young age. He was sent to the United States to live with relatives who had immigrated to San Francisco. There he lived until he became older and then moved to Colorado where he farmed wheat. It was here that he made his first road, which went over Pancho Pass near the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This was the first of many roads built by Mears.
 
He was also a friend to the Ute, being present with Chief Ouray during negotiations in 1868 and 1873. It was the Brunot Agreement in 1873 that removed 3.7 million acres in the San Juan Mountains from the Ute Reservation and opened it to mining. The future route of the Million Dollar Highway fell within this area.
 
In 1883 the Ouray County Commissioners asked Mears to complete the road from Ouray to Red Mountain. A new plan was devised and it was decided to continue the road up Uncompahgre Creek, and then deviate from the previous route and build instead from the Engineer Pass turnoff, up the “impassable” Red Mountain Creek. This would shave ten miles from the route. Otto Mears would contribute enough capital to employ hundreds of men to work on the road, thus propelling forward the date of completion.
 

Abandoned building on Highway 550, also known as the Million Dollar Highway.

He placed a toll gate at the bridge over Bear Creek Falls, which consisted of a log. He received five dollars for each team and wagon, and a dollar for each pack animal. However, since most of that portion was already completed, most of his work focused on the stretch that paralleled Red Mountain Creek to Ironton Park. It cost approximately forty thousand dollars per mile to blast a route through quartzite cliffs that stood nearly 800 feet tall. Even when the road was completed some sections were so narrow that only one wagon could fit.
 
Once the Ouray side of the road was nearly completed in the fall of 1883, Mears began negotiating with San Juan County Commissioners on the Silverton side of the mountain. An agreement wasn't reached until June 28, 1884 and construction began on July 8.
 
Most of Mears's work consisted in upgrading the existing road. As part of the agreement the road had to be continuously downhill until it reached Silverton, with no more than a seven-percent grade. It had to be wide enough that two wagons could always pass one another.
 
The biggest challenge was constructing the final mile or two of road that crossed Red Mountain Divide. They had to blast from the steep cliffs during which time they discovered a large body of carbonate ore. The road was completed in December of 1884.
 

Red Mountain Mining District.

Following our stop at the lookout over the mining district, we get back in the car and within minutes we are cresting Red Mountain Divide at 11,018 feet. Other than one hair-pin turn, the road runs a relatively strait line to Silverton. We pass a few old structures, which must be relics from the old town of Chattanooga. We drive along Mineral Creek before taking a lazy bend toward Silverton. Because of time constraints we don't make any stops, although I watch with lustful eyes, wishing I could explore.
 
A local newspaper reported on June 6, 1885: “The first stage ever to arrive at Silverton will come through from Montrose in the course of a few days, and there is every reason to believe that it will be loaded with passengers. The stage will be decorated, drawn by six white horses. An effort will be made to drive over from Ouray, a distance of twenty miles, in about three hours.”
 

Shaft house near Red Mountain.

Now with the wagon road completed, the cost of transporting ore dramatically decreased. It also allowed freight wagons to travel to and from the mines. These wagons had large heavy wheels and could carry five to ten tons of ore.
 
The Million Dollar Highway did not derive it's name from the cost of building the road. Altogether, the cost of production came to nearly two hundred thousand dollars. Perhaps the name came from the millions of dollars of ore that would be shipped over the road. In my mind, however, the million dollar worth of the road comes from the natural beauty of the landscape.
 

Abandoned structure in Red Mountain Mining District.

The next day I find myself poking around the Hillside Cemetery in Silverton. This is probably one of the most alluring graveyards I have ever visited. It is worth another visit and someday I hope to write about it. Befitting of it's name, it lies on a hillside among aspen trees, with a view of incredibly rugged mountains and overlooking the old mining town of Silverton.
 
By chance I stumble upon the simple white headstone of Otto Mears. It makes no reference to his road-making accomplishments, but rather it gives his company and regiment from his days in the U.S. Cavalry. Upon further investigation I learn that he is not buried in the cemetery at all, but was cremated, and his ashes were spread along Engineer Pass just north of Silverton. ♠

Headstone for Otto Mears.

[Almost all my information comes from P. David Smith's book, Mountains of Silver.]