Otto Mears was a successful business man in southwestern Colorado in the late 1800's. His vision pioneering spirit & engineering expertise linked southwestern Colorado to the outside world, first with toll roads & then narrow gauge rail across the San Juan Mountains.
In 1873 he also helped negotiate the Brunot Treaty with Chief Ouray, last of the great Ute Chief. He contributed to opening up mining in Silverton, Ouray, & Telluride & carried the first mail into Ouray in 1875. In 1882-83 Mears & Fred Walsen built the 12 miles of the Ouray & Red Mountain Toll Road between Ouray & Red Mountain. That wagon road later became known as the "Million Dollar Highway".
Road Builder
The Ouray & Red Mountain Toll Road through the area you are now visiting was the most difficult road building project Mears attempted. The dangerous passage through the Uncompahgre River Canyon was expensive & difficult to build, with the toll road costing nearly $10,000 per mile at the time. They had to lower men on ropes from the canyon rim to blast the quartzite walls with charges of dynamite.
By placing the toll booth at Bear Creek Falls above the Uncompahgre River Canyon floor Mears made it impossible to get around without paying a toll. Mears charged a $5.00 toll per wagon team & $1.00 for each head of livestock.
(The above view of the previous bridge at Bear Creek Falls is taken from a similar location as the historic photograph shown in the top-center view. The new bridge & overlook provides a safer & less hazardous route over the falls while allowing visitors to fully appreciate the skill & determination of past pathfinders & visionaries such as Otto Mears. The spectacular scenery of the route continues to draw visitors from all over the world).
Transportation Visionary
Mears foresaw the future of transportation from wagons to steam locomotives. Mears hired highly skilled & creative men to design & carry out the complicated engineering projects needed to construct routes through Colorado's mountain terrain. He foresaw the coming of the automobile & promoted improved-surface roads in Colorado. In 1891 Ouray County took over this section of roadway until 1917 when the new Colorado Highway Department was formed. The first graveled state auto road & bridge over Bear Creek Falls opened in 1922.
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Origin of the San Juan Mountain
The rocks of the San Juan Mountains record a complex geologic history spanning more than 1.4 billion years of deposition, metamorphism, faulting, folding erosion, intrusion, uplift, volcanism, canyon cutting & glaciation. The rocks surrounding you show only a small part of the story.
Umcompahgre Formation is the oldest rock exposed & it was eroded from even older mountains. The formation consist mostly of sandstone & shale which have been metamorphosed into quartzite & slate. Ripple in the vertical outcrop across the canyon. The vertical orientation tells us that these rocks were tilted & were deposited on top of them.
Rocks of the San Juan Volcanics
Around 66 million yrs. ago, the area was uplifted, eroding the underlying rocks. Numerous volcanic eruptions began around 38 million yrs. ago, blasting large quantities of ash & debris across southwestern Colorado. These deposits make up the purple cliffs of the San Juan Formation surrounding you. The liquid magma under the earth's surface was rich in precious metals, such as gold, silver, lead, zinc, & copper. As this magma oozed through existing rocks, it cooled & created rich mineralized zones. This mineralization fueled a mining boom in the 1870s.
Glaziation & the Uncompahgre River
Following a long period of violent volcanic activity, the area was dissected by streams & subjected to further uplift creating high mountains ^ steep, narrow valleys. The terrain was also shaped by several ice advances, the youngest one retreating about 16,000 yrs. ago. At Bear Creek Falls, we see several signs of glaciation. Bear Creek Falls flows from the mouth of a hanging valley, which formed where a small glacier joined with a larger one.
Evidence of the erosive power of glacier is seen along the lower reached of the Bear Creek trail, where slate has been polished smooth by grit filled ice grinding across the rock.
Striations can be seen on these polished surfaces, where particles of rock in the ice gouged lines into the slate. South of the bridge, unsorted rock debris remains from a moraine that formed along the side of the glacier against the valley wall. Even today, geologic processes are at work as the San Juan Mountains continue to rise & the Uncompahgre River carves deeper into the valley.
© All Rights Reserved
© All Rights Reserved
© All Rights Reserved
© All Rights Reserved