Author: P. David Smith

Publisher: Western Reflections Publishing Company

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9781932738803

The Million Dollar Highway runs north and south directly through the middle of the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern, Colorado - some of the most beautiful and rugged country in all of North America, if not the world. There would be no road today if it were not for the treasure chest of minerals that early-day prospectors found, for all the gold and silver in the world was worth nothing if it could not be economically transported out of the mountains. The San Juan communities needed a wagon road, and that is what Otto Mears and others gave them. However, the road was realized only after expenditures of what today would be millions of dollars and almost fifty years of labor. This book is not only the story of an amazing highway. It is also the history of the development of mining and transportation of all types throughout the rugged San Juans. The stunning beauty along the route is pointed out and the complex geology of the mountains and the mines of the San Juan Mountains is explained. This book also details the histories of Durango, Silverton, and Ouray - three quaint, Victorian towns along the road - and tells tales of dozens of small settlements that are now ghost towns.