The town of Silverton is a town that is the county seat of, and the only incorporated municipality in San Juan County, Colorado. Silverton is a former silver mining camp, most or all of which is now included in a federally designated National Historic Landmark District, the Silverton Historic District. The town population reached its peak of 531 in the U.S. Census 2000. Silverton is linked to Durango, Colorado by the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a National Historic Landmark. Silverton no longer has active mining, but subsists by tourism, maintenance of US 550 (which links Montrose with Durango via Silverton), mine pollution remediation, and retirees. In 2002 an extreme ski mountain, Silverton Mountain, opened near the town.- Wikipedia
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG) is a 3 ft narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates 45.2 miles of track between Durango and Silverton, in the state of Colorado. The railway is a federally designated National Historic Landmark and is also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The route was originally opened in 1882 by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. The line from Durango to Silverton has run continuously since 1881, although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers, and is one of the few places in the U.S. which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives.— Wikipedia
