Otto Mears, a Lincoln Party Republican, entrepreneur and the man who built the Rio Grande Southern Railroad from Ridgway to Durango in the 1890s, was highlighted during a history lesson Saturday hosted by the Animas Museum.
The Animas Museum’s Second Saturday Seminar Series tackled the subject of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad in a virtual presentation hosted by Susan Jones and Charles DiFerdinando of the museum. They talked about Mears and other people who contributed to the railroad’s construction.
Jones said Mears started construction in the town now known as Ridgway on April 9, 1890. By that summer, 2,400 men were employed on the RGS Railroad project.
Mears and his construction crews faced three major problems right off the bat, she said. Construction was difficult to begin with, but a particularly wet summer made it even more challenging. And, labor was quickly lost to mining jobs in the San Juan Mountains.
“The workers soon realized that they could make a whole lot more money working in the mines and left the railroad for the mines,” she said.
But work persisted. In November 1890, the railroad route to Telluride was completed; a “huge celebration” occurred on Nov. 22 and 23, Jones said.
Finally, on Dec. 20, 1891, the RGS tracked back to Durango, she said. Yet another celebration unfolded, and Mears donated 50 turkeys and three barrels of beer to the public of Durango. They celebrated with construction crews as the RGS Railroad’s last spike was driven into the earth.
“These are the golden days of the Rio Grande Southern,” Jones said. “The railroad thrived and prospered, mines were able to ship lower grade ore more economically to the shelters. ”
The railroad also heightened the need for another smelter in Durango. Mears, who was no stranger to new ventures and in addition to creating the RGS had established sawmills, a telegraph and a newspaper and grew wheat in earlier Colorado ventures, started work on a new smelter in summer 1892, she said.
“However, all good things, I guess, must come to an end,” Jones said. “In 1893, the Sherman Silver (Purchase) Act was repealed, and that caused the price of silver to drop from something like $1.50 an ounce to less than $0.60 an ounce pretty much overnight.”
Mears, who had invested heavily in silver, lost nearly everything. He had to sell off much of his holdings in order to survive. And the RGS was also dependent on silver.
The Denver Rio Grande Railroad was RGS’ largest stockholder; Mears’ financial outlook got so bad that he had to sell the railroad to Denver Rio Grande in 1895; and so ended Mears’ legacy with that particular railroad, Jones said.
The December Second Saturday Seminar will be all about the history of worship and churches in Durango and La Plata County.
Jones said the Animas Museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays.
A new exhibit is also in the works called “From this Earth: The Timeless Beauty of Pueblo Pottery.”
“Our founding director Robert McDaniel will be the guest curator, and he will be taking a look at some of the historic Native American pottery in our collection, mostly which came from the Durango Public Library,” she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
