Roadtrip: Mesa Verde and Silverton

By Chad Fleming

In this day and age in America, many people travel by plane, automobile and sometimes even by boat. It’s starting to become a distant memory for most people today but the most widely used methods of transportation during the migration West during the gold rush, was either by wagon or train. The train dramatically changed how the United States functioned and opened up the gates to the four corners of this great an unknown land. One rail line in particular I will discuss is the Narrow Gauge Line from Durango to Silverton, which I had the pleasure of riding on during my trip to Mesa Verde and then Silverton.

Mesa Verde is one of the most intriguing and spectacular man-made historical dwellings I have ever had the ability to see in person. While there is still much to be learned about the Anasazi who built the cliff dwellings, much had been gained over the last century when it comes to how they lived. When I first saw the dwellings in person I couldn’t believe that people had actually made this their home for generations because it’s literally on a cliff. Mesa Verde is a nationally recognized monument and recently was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. At first, I found it hard to imagine people living in the small sandstone and adobe dwellings because many of the doorways leading into them were very small. The Park Ranger then put my views into perspective because the people who lived there were a lot smaller than most people are today. The Anasazi people were shorter in stature and made homes to fit what they needed which then made a lot of sense.

According to the National Park Service, the ancient Puebloans started building and living in the cliff dwellings around the year 1190, after having lived in the area for six hundred years already. The Puebloan people established deep seeded roots in the region but why didn’t their presence in the region last longer? After roughly eighty years occupying the cliff dwellings, “The population began migrating south into present-day New Mexico and Arizona... and by 1300, the Ancestral Puebloan occupation of Mesa Verde ended”. I would be very interested to talk to the Puebloans of that time and ask them why they packed up and left after inhabiting the region for over half of a millennia, but some things are best left a secret.

The next part of my adventure took me on a trip to Silverton via the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. According to the Durango and Silverton Railroad Museum, “Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1880… The railroad arrived in Durango on August 5, 1881 and construction on the line to Silverton began in the fall of the same year”. After only a year the rail line was put to use and started carrying both silver and gold ore from the San Juan Mountains. During this time the railway was also “promoted as a scenic route for passenger service” but it was mainly used to move ore.

My experience on the forty-five mile trip from Durango to Silverton was an unforgettable experience to say the least because it was my first long trip on a train and the views were spectacular. Although I wasn’t aware that sticking my face out of the train car would cause my face to turn black, I soon found out. The ride to Silverton was a great experience because it took me back in time and let me imagine how the settlers in this land lived and traveled. The ride was not very smooth, the train traveled very slowly and my face was black from the smoke slowly drifting back to the cabins, but the enjoyment I had is something I will never forget. When I picture in my mind a Wild West town, the first one that comes to mind now is Silverton. After the long and bumpy ride, I finally made it to town and was greeted by men riding horses and wearing chaps, women wearing old-time Sunday dresses and a new outlook on the Wild West. On the main street there was a saloon with the swinging door and a restaurant with waiters dressed in the attire of the late 1900s. Buffalo burger was on the menu and was probably one of the best I’ve ever had.

Silverton was established as a mining town in 1874 after the Brunot Treaty with the Utes, according to Silverton Historical Society. Originally, two thousand miners moved into the area to test their luck at mining silver and more followed them to mine the miners. The town never became really big but to its credit, the town exists today if only a tourist attraction. I find it hard to believe, just like with the Puebloans in Mesa Verde that people were able to survive in the harsh conditions that Silverton endures in the winter. Silverton lies between two San Juan Mountain passes, Red Mountain and Molas. In the early days of the town, it was known as “the town that never quit”. This kind of enduring spirit is what makes me proud to be a native Coloradan as well as an avid explorer of Colorado.

Many Coloradans are unaware that Colorado has a great history with many small towns and nationally recognized monuments but they are still there waiting to be explored. My trip was eye-opening because I learned many new interesting facts about the early days of settlers as well as the lives of the ancient inhabitants.