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uch of the route encompassed by today's Silver Thread Scenic & Historic Byway, 117 miles of State Highway 149 connecting the communities of South Fork, Creede and Lake City, is based on portions of two 19th Century toll roads which were instrumental in developing the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. Motorists traversing the route today are but the most recent in a long progression of travelers dating back centuries to the Ute Indians and Spanish explorers, and, more recently, wild-eyed prospectors who streamed into these mountains in the mid-1870s in search of elusive mineral wealth. A succession of prospectors on foot and saddle animal, freight wagons and heavily-laden stage coaches was followed during the early years of the 20th Century by the first of the gasoline-powered automobiles. Designated as a state highway, the old toll road was gradually widened and smoothed and, finally, in the early 1980s, paved for its entire length. Its notable historic and scenic elements were officially recognized in 1991 when the first 75-mile segment of Highway 149 was designated as the Silver Thread Scenic & Historic Byway; in 2005 the Silver Thread was further extended the entire length of State Highway 149 -- total 117 miles -- from U.S. Highway 160 at South Fork extending through Creede and Lake City all the way to Highway 149's juncture with U.S. Highway 50 at Blue Mesa Reservoir. The modern-day history of the Silver Thread dates back to the early 1870s and an intense rivalry which existed between the San Luis Valley towns of Saguache and Del Norte. Both towns hoped to reap economic rewards by becoming the official "gateway" to the rich mining discoveries which were then being made in the vicinity of Baker's Park, in the upper Animas Valley deep in the forbidding San Juan Mountains. Saguache took the initiative early in 1874 when Otto Mears, subsequently known as the "Pathfinder of the San Juan," and other community leaders contracted with Enos T. Hotchkiss to build the Saguache & San Juan Toll Road, a torturous 130-mile route which meandered up the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River past the present site of Lake City and over present-day Cinnamon Pass before dropping into the Animas Valley near Animas Forks. Del Norte businessmen also had their eyes on the rich mines at Baker's Park and starting in 1873 worked to develop the much-heralded Del Norte & San Juan Toll Road. The road initially extended a distance of 55 miles from Del Norte up the Rio Grande River to Antelope Park. From Antelope Park, which was the site of San Juan City, Hinsdale County's first county seat, the toll road continued up Crooked Creek, ultimately crossing rugged Stony Pass and then dropping down Cunningham Gulch to Howardsville. The route was used as early as 1873-74 when machinery for the Little Giant Mine, one of the first large scale mining operations in the region, was laboriously hauled over the pass. In addition to the Stony Pass route, which today exists as a 4-wheel drive jeep road, the incorporators of the Del Norte & San Juan Toll Road also envisioned a second access, the Antelope Park & Lake City Toll Road, which would branch off from the main route at a stage stop known as Antelope Springs and pass by Mirror Lake on its wending way over the Continental Divide into a little known area called the Lake Mining District, so named due to its proximity to Lake San Cristobal. The town of Lake City, founded in August 1874, became the loadstone of the Lake Mining District following the discovery of rich gold ore by the Hotchkiss continued page 3

SILVER THREAD SCENIC & HISTORIC BYWAY - SUMMER 2016 - PAGE 2

Sil ver Thread

Scenic Byway

a Historic Perspective

is a special publication of Lake City Silver World Newspaper Copyright 2016 Silver World Publishing Company Lake City, Colorado

Cover Photo: Snow & Mist at Lake San Cristobal, Colorado's Second Largest Natural Lake - April, 201 6.

Indian Trails, Toll Roads Form Basis Present-Day Silver Thread Byway

Role of 'Iron Horse,' Stages Delivering Mail...

Mid-1870's stationery for veteran mail contractor A. Arnot includes a fascinating woodcut illustration, above, which is replete with symbolism, portions of which are now obscure. As a federal mail contractor, Arnot worked closely with the expanding system of railroads, boasting on his stationery that in 40 years active service he led "the iron horse from the Atlantic to the Pacific." In this woodcut, Arnot emphasizes the connection between railroads and stage coaches, in this view mail being offloaded from a railroad mail carriage onto a waiting stagecoach which, once loaded, then wends its way along a winding roadway past Native Americans, their solitary teepees, and assorted wildlife before disappearing into the distant mountains. The coal-fired steam engine with its trademark diamond-shaped smokestack prepares to enter a railway tunnel in the midst of dense wilderness, a mail sack apparently suspended from the arm of a delivery post, far right, while a fearsome bear watches the unfolding panorama. While generic, the woodcut might illustrate the role of the railroad and stagecoaches in the San Luis Valley or elsewhere in Colorado. As U.S. Mail contractors, the stage firm Barlow & Sanderson pushed ahead of the advancing Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. After reaching Denver in 1870, the D & RG railroad rapidly expanded to Pueblo in 1872, Canon City in 1874, and over LaVeta Pass to Alamosa in the San Luis Valley in 1878.