Durango is a lovely town with wide streets and a nice atmosphere. It is the start of the Durango-Silverton railroad - which we did in reverse!
Durango is a nice spot with wide streets and low buildings and a friendly atmosphere. It was established in 1880 to service the silver and gold mining communities, one of which was Silverton.1
We stayed at the Blue Lake Ranch in the Garden Room which is lovely, loads of space and a porch with two rocking chairs where we spent late afternoon and evening on the day we arrived, dining of the chesses. meats and wine which we'd pre-ordered, knowing we'd probably not want to head out again for dinner. The cheeses and meats didn't compare to what we're used to in the UK and the rest of Europe but they filled a hole. They do excellent breakfasts at Blue Lake Ranch, though cooked items weren't available until 8 am.
We were mainly in town to travel the Durango-Silverton railway but had plenty of time to explore Durango itself.
We had a great lunch at Steamworks Brewing Co. Andrew had prime rib dip and I had the gyro - a tortilla wrap stuffed with beef, lamb, feta and salad - and Bravo IPA.
We actually did this in the reverse direction, from Silverton to Durango, getting the coach up to Silverton for the return journey on the 45.6 mile narrow gauge railway. The driver stopped the coach at a viewpoint at a pass in the San Juan mountains.
We left Silverton at 2pm sitting in an open-sided car and it felt cold when we started but there were blankets and it soon warmed up as we descended out of the mountains. Three and a half hours went quickly as we travelled through beautiful landscapes - mountains and a river most of the way.
The following photographs are roughly in sequence from Silverton to Durango.
The river enters a deep gorge closer to Durango.
Approaching Durango the land flattens out into a wide plain backed by red sandstone cliffs and mountains.
Silverton has a hugely wide main street and a number of buildings throughout the town which evoke the "wild west".
Originally the land the town is built on belonged to the Ute Native Americans, essentially it was stolen when gold and silver were discovered in the 1860s and up to a thousand prospectors arrived to try their luck.2
The town itself was established in 1874 and the first railroad arrived in 1882 connecting Silverton with Durango. By the early 1990s mining was no longer profitable and the town now relies mainly on tourism and remote working.
Before boarding the train for Durango we visited the town museum. The receptionist was very kind, she said we didn't have enough time to see the museum properly but let us see the jail and jailor's family home for free.
The cells are in a large steel box in the historic jailhouse. It was constructed by a company set up by J. Pauly and his family who were once steamboat blacksmiths on the Mississippi River. They made steel cages which could be mounted on flatbed wagons to create "portable" jail cells.2
The family home was in the same building as the jail. The jailor's office could be isolated from the family quarters, the basement and the cell block via solid steel doors. The exterior door was made of massive steel bars to isolate the whole building keeping the public out and inmates inside.
