I have been to Silverton a few times. First on a
scouting trip with Mike when we were planning our trip to
Noname Creek in the Weminuche Wilderness.
The next time was when I got snowed in there for three
days in March of 2000. It is vastly different between the
summer, when it is the northern terminus of the Durango-Silverton narrow
guage railway, and in the winter when there are only
the hardcode residents. Silverton is the only town in San
Juan county, which supposedly has the highest mean
elevation of any county in the United States. It receives
between 200" and 300" of snow fall per
year. The following is a small report I wrote
after returning from the trip where I got snowed in. One
of the best experiences of my life, ever! A real
"Northern Exposure" experience. Photos follow.
During part of the vacation, I drove from
Ouray to Silverton through part of the San Juan
mountains in a blinding snowstorm. Traveling 26 miles
took almost two hours on a twisty, curvy, "shelf
road" with no guard rails and 500' drop-offs
on one side. After arriving in Silverton, a small
town of 350 in the San Juans, the Colorado highway
department closed both passes into and out of town
due to extreme avalanche danger. The passes stayed
closed during the next three days, with each day
punctuated by the distant "thud" of
howitzer shells and the chop-chop-chop of helicopters
going by to drop charges to trigger avalanches so
they could be "managed." Not even the mail
made it into town during that time.
Luckily, there was a motel that was open in
the winter, so I had a place to stay. There were also
two cafes (only open during the day) and a small
grocery store, so I could eat. Shortly after arriving
on Monday, I was eating in the cafe and asked if
there was a doctor in town, since I had fallen while
snow shoeing the day before, and I wanted my ribs
checked, since it hurt to draw deep breaths.
"Oh, sure - there's one.
Doctor Ann. The clinic is right across the
street." So after lunch I went over and saw
"Doctor Ann," who runs the Silverton Clinic
all by herself. After poking me over, she pronounced
I was probably OK, and then asked how I got that way,
what I was doing there, etc. I told her about my
vacation and its goal of "no goals," and
the snow shoeing incident. She listened,
told me to take care of myself and be more careful,
and that was the end of the exam.
Later, I went into the cafe, and there was
Doctor Ann eating with some wild-looking dude with
long hair, scraggly beard, and a bomber/pilot's
helmet. She waved me over by name, and had me sit
with her and Fred. She filled in Fred on who I was
and what I was doing there, and then introduced me to
Fred, a real character. He had "only" been
there "15 winters" (in Silverton, it snows
up to 300"/year), and had the town concessions
for trash hauling and snowplowing. After lunch, they
invited me to go with them to the middle school,
where five Silverton natives were giving a talk about
their various experiences in the Peace Corps over the
last 30+ years. So we went. The second I stepped into
that middle school, a building of about the same age
as my junior high, Bam!, my smell
brain took me back to that era in my life (as
I've told friends since, right down to almost
expecting to get beaten up after school :-).
We stood behind the circle of kids in the
library and listened to the people talk about their
experiences in the Peace Corps, which were quite
interesting. We then talked with a friend of Doctor
Ann's (everybody in town is a friend of Doctor
Ann) who was the teacher in charge of the computers
for the school, so she showed us the two computer
labs. Then we went and hung out in the coffee shop
with the locals for the afternoon. I just sat back,
kept my mouth shut, and listened (and
laughed).
After that, I was "in." Since I had
been introduced around by Dr. Ann, I spent the next
three days in Silverton hanging out, checking out the
local mountains, and snow shoeing on excellent trails
recommended by various people (and the trails I was
sent on were guaranteed to be avalanche safe, which
was a good thing, since the San Juans are
Colorado's avalanche central - all the mountains
around town had avalanche tracks on them). I was
welcomed into the afternoon circle at the coffee
house, even when Doctor Ann wasn't there, and met
other cool, eclectic people. I hung out at a bar one
night talking with "Bennie," a former miner
and mountain guide, and we had a great time
discussing places to go backpacking in the
surrounding mountains and cursing "da
gum'mint."
I felt totally and completely at home. More so
than in almost any other place I've ever been. It
reaffirmed my faith in people in a way that only a
few other experiences (also special memories) ever
have. I even wrote a letter to the editor of the
Silverton paper when I got back. Truly one of the
best times of my life.
