Railroads
More than any other industry, railroads made the growth and development of southwest Colorado possible. The mountain fastness of the San Juan mining region was, and still is, a very isolated area. The future of the region hinged on solutions to the problem of bringing supples into and transporting products out of the area.
Trails provided the only access into southwest Colorado prior to the early 1870s. Virtually all of these pathways had long been in use by Native Americans. Horse travel and pack trains were the standard modes of transportation along these trails. In the 1870s, entrepreneurs began to build toll roads over some of the main routes. Wagons could now ply these roads to carry people and goods in and out of the area.
Railroads, however, were the ultimate solution to the transportation question. They represented the cheapest, most efficient means of moving people and goods from one place to another. By the late 1870s the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad began making plans to build a rail line into the San Juan mining region.
Rather than build this rail line up the Rio Grande and over Stony Pass, which was the most direct line from the railhead
at Alamosa to Silverton, the D&RG chose a more circuitous route, which led to the valley of the Rio de las Animas. In the process, railroad agents founded the new town of Durango in 1880.
The D&RG's San Juan Extension was completed to Durango in August of 1881 and to Silverton in July of 1882. With the completion of this line, southwest Colorado's economic future seemed assured. The major industries of mining, railroading and smelting were now interconnected.
Additional rail lines were built in the 1880s and 1890s. Three short line railroads were built up and over Red Mountain Pass in 1888, the Silverton Northern Railroad was constructed up the Animas River in 1896, and the Silverton, Gladstone & Northerly Railroad was extended up Cement Creek to Gladstone in 1899. These short railroads served as feeders to the D&RG rail line to Durango and its smelters.
In 1890 construction began on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad between Durango and Ridgway. When finished in 1891, the line connected Durango with Fort Lewis, Hesperus,
Mancos, Dolores, Rico and Telluride. Ores, lumber, livestock and agricultural produce comprised most of the traffic over this rugged route through the breathtaking San Juan Mountains. Including branch lines, the Rio Grande Southern totaled some 172 Miles of rail.
The last line to be built was the D& RG's standard gauge branch line to Farmington, New Mexico in 1905. It was buit to forestall construction of other rail lines from the south to tap the basin's coal resources. Since it was extended no further than Farmington, it was eventually converted to narrow gauge to conform with the D&RG's narrow gauge trackage in Southwest Colorado.
The early twentieth century brought changes that were detrimental to railroads. Introduction of the automobile and airplaine were chief among these. In the 1920s and 1930s the D&RG began to abandon many of their narrow gauge lines. Most of the former San Juan Extenstion was abandoned in the 1960s, although the line from Durango to Silverton was preserved. Today it is one of Colorado's most famous tourist attractions and after 120 years of continuous service, it provides the communities of Durango and Silverton with one of their most visible ties to the past.