Silverton
A Silver Mining Town At 9,318 Feet In A Bowl Of The San Juans, Its Entire Centre A National Historic Landmark District. The Northern Terminus Of The Durango And Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, And Still A Town Of Dirt Side Streets. · Silverton, Colorado
Silverton sits at 9,318 feet in a bowl of the San Juan Mountains with peaks on every side, and it is the only town in a county of fewer than a thousand people. The whole centre is a National Historic Landmark district, and the side streets are still dirt - only Greene Street, the main one, is paved, which tells you most of what you need to know about how much the twentieth century bothered the place. Greene Street was where the banks and the respectable trade were; Blair Street, one block over, held around forty saloons, dance halls and brothels and ran more or less without law until the 1940s. The narrow gauge train from Durango arrives at midday in season and the town fills for three hours, then empties. Above it, Silverton Mountain is a single-lift, expert-only ski area with no groomed runs at all. Stay the night and you get the other Silverton: the peaks going pink at six in the evening with nobody at all on Greene Street.
Greene Street, Silverton, Colorado, 81433, United States
A year-round town, but a highly seasonal one - roughly May to October is when most shops, restaurants and tours operate, and a substantial part of the town closes in winter. The Durango and Silverton train runs to Silverton in the summer season only; the winter service turns back short of the town. THE MILLION DOLLAR HIGHWAY north to Ouray and US 550 south to Durango both close for avalanche control in winter. The Alpine Loop and the high jeep roads are summer-only and need a suitable vehicle.