Ruby Sisson Library

The history of the first hundred years of Durango, Colorado.

The Road that Silver Built, runs north and south directly through the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado - some of the most beautiful and rugged country in all of North America, if not the world. However, there would be no road today if it were not for the treasure chest of minerals that early-day prospectors found, for all the gold and silver that was discovered was worth nothing if it could not be economically transported out of the mountains....

Originally published in the Durango Herald in the Friday edition. Each article covered one subject and included a photograph or drawing. The series covered the years from 1880's into the 1920's, with a few maverick 1870's articles to set the scene.

A chronicle of southwest's Colorado's Fort Lewis, belies the Western myth of soldiers riding out from isolated posts to rescue wagon trains and protect pioneer towns.