The Silverton Story

A detailed local history sketches a high-elevation Colorado mining town set among four peaks and traces its transformation from early placer and lode prospecting to a full mining boom. It recounts pioneer routes, the discovery and development of rich veins and mills, the rush of recorded claims, and the fortunes and eccentricities of prominent mine owners. It also describes negotiation and conflict with the Ute people and treaty arrangements, the arrival of sawmills and the hardships of mountain freight, the establishment of mercantile and postal services, and the town's preservation as a remarkably intact turn-of-the-century community.