Silverton, Colorado
Encyclopedia
The town of Silverton is a Statutory Town that is the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....

 of, and the only incorporated municipality
Colorado municipalities
The U.S. state of Colorado currently has 271 active incorporated municipalities, including 196 towns, 73 cities, and two consolidated city and county governments.-Municipal government:...

 in, San Juan County
San Juan County, Colorado
San Juan County is the least populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado in the United States. The county name is the Spanish language name for “Saint John”, the name Spanish explorers gave to a river and the mountain range in the area. The county population was 558 at U.S. Census 2000...

, Colorado, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Silverton is a former silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 camp, most or all of which is now included in a federally designated National Historic Landmark District, the Silverton Historic District. The town population was 531 at U.S. Census 2000.

Silverton is linked to Durango
Durango, Colorado
The City of Durango is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of La Plata County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau said that the city population was 16,887 in 2010 census.-History:...

 by the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is a narrow gauge heritage railroad that operates of track between Durango and Silverton, in the US state of Colorado...

, a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

. Silverton no longer has active mining, but subsists by tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

, maintenance of US 550 (which links Montrose
Montrose, Colorado
The City of Montrose is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Montrose County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 15,479 in 2005. The main road that leads in and out of Montrose is U.S...

 with Durango via Silverton), mine pollution remediation, and retirees.

Geography

Silverton is located at 37°48′45"N 107°39′47"W (37.812545, -107.662994).

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the town has a total area of 0.8 square miles (2.1 km²), all of it land. Silverton is one of the highest towns in the United States, at 9,305 feet (2,836 m) above sea level.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 531 people, 255 households, and 149 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 656.0 people per square mile (253.1/km²). There were 430 housing units at an average density of 531.2 per square mile (205.0/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.36% White, 0.75% Native American, 0.38% Pacific Islander, 0.75% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 0.75% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.72% of the population.

There were 255 households out of which 24.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.5% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.2% were non-families. 36.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.06 and the average family size was 2.63.

In the town the population was spread out with 20.7% under the age of 18, 4.0% from 18 to 24, 28.4% from 25 to 44, 39.9% from 45 to 64, and 7.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 108.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 110.5 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $30,486, and the median income for a family was $39,375. Males had a median income of $30,588 versus $19,886 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the town was $16,839. About 14.0% of families and 21.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.4% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.

The local school system has a total of 53 K-through-12 students as of November, 2006.

Notable residents

  • Robert Baer
    Robert Baer
    Robert "Bob" Booker Baer is an American author and a former CIA case officer assigned to the Middle East. He is TIME.com's intelligence columnist and has contributed to Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Baer is a frequent commentator and author about issues related to...

    , author and former case officer at the Central Intelligence Agency
    Central Intelligence Agency
    The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

  • Brison D. Gooch
    Brison D. Gooch
    Brison Dowling Gooch is a professor emeritus of 19th-century European history at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He is an authority on the Revolutions of 1848, Napoleon III, Belgium, and the Crimean War....

    , retired historian
    Historian
    A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

     of 19th century Europe
    Europe
    Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

    , former school board member, city council member, and mayor pro tempore of Silverton
  • Harold Ross
    Harold Ross
    Harold Wallace Ross was an American journalist and founder of The New Yorker magazine, which he edited from the magazine's inception in 1925 to his death....

    , founding editor of The New Yorker
    The New Yorker
    The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

    who was a native of Aspen
    Aspen, Colorado
    The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...

    , Colorado
  • Arthur Pink
    Arthur Pink
    Arthur Walkington Pink was an English Christian evangelist and Biblical scholar known for his staunchly Calvinist and Puritan-like teachings.-Biography:...

    , evangelical pastor and writer, lived in Silverton briefly

Silverton in popular culture

In the novel The Christopher Killer
The Christopher Killer
The Christopher Killer is a novel by Alane Ferguson set in the small town of Silverton, Colorado. The book centers around Cameryn who is the assistant to her coroner father. It was released on May 4, 2006 in the United States. The book was an Edgar Award Nominee in 2007....

 by Alane Ferguson
Alane Ferguson
Alane Ferguson is an author who has won the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery novel in 1990 for Show Me the Evidence.Ferguson was born in Cumberland, Maryland, in 1957. Her mother is children's author Gloria Skurzynski....

, the main setting is in Silverton.

Country singer C. W. McCall
C. W. McCall
C. W. McCall is the pseudonym of William Dale Fries, Jr. , an American singer, activist and politician known for his truck-themed outlaw country songs.-Biography:...

 recorded "The Silverton," about the Silverton and Durango Railroad, on his 1975 album Black Bear Road
Black Bear Road
Black Bear Road is a notorious jeep trail that starts from summit of Red Mountain Pass on U.S. Highway 550 to Telluride, Colorado. The Black Bear Road crests at Black Bear Pass, elevation . The road descends over a set of infamous switchbacks as it navigates the heights above Telluride. The road...

/

Silverton was the setting for some of Shaun White's 2010 Olympic training. Taking advantage of the secluded locale, terrain and snow fall, Red Bull built a private halfpipe for the snowboarder. Known as "Project X," the halfpipe was completed in Feb. 2009 on the backside of Silverton Mountain and allowed the boarder to perfect some of his gold medal winning moves far from prying eyes. 37°51′57.84"N 107°38′38.57"W

See also

  • Animas River
    Animas River
    Animas River is a river in the western United States, a tributary of the San Juan River, part of the Colorado River System. The Spanish named the river "Rio de las Animas Perdidas", "River of the Lost Souls". It is also the last free-flowing river in Colorado. The river's free-flowing status...

  • Colorado municipalities
    Colorado municipalities
    The U.S. state of Colorado currently has 271 active incorporated municipalities, including 196 towns, 73 cities, and two consolidated city and county governments.-Municipal government:...

  • Durango-Silverton Narrow-Gauge Railroad National Historic District
  • Million Dollar Highway
  • Old Hundred Gold Mine
    Old Hundred Gold Mine
    The Old Hundred Gold Mine is a gold mine in San Juan County, Colorado, United States. The mine is about five miles east of Silverton, Colorado, near the ghost town of Howardsville. The property is no longer mined, but is open for tours in the summer....

  • San Juan County, Colorado
    San Juan County, Colorado
    San Juan County is the least populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado in the United States. The county name is the Spanish language name for “Saint John”, the name Spanish explorers gave to a river and the mountain range in the area. The county population was 558 at U.S. Census 2000...

  • San Juan Mountains
    San Juan Mountains
    The San Juan Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado. The area is highly mineralized and figured in the gold and silver mining industry of early Colorado. Major towns, all old mining camps, include Creede, Lake City, Silverton, Ouray, and...

  • San Juan Skyway National Scenic Byway
  • Shenandoah-Dives (Mayflower) Mill
    Shenandoah-Dives (Mayflower) Mill
    The Shenandoah-Dives Mill or Mayflower Mill is a intact and functional but inactive historic ore mill two miles east of Silverton, Colorado, United States...

  • Silverton National Historic District
  • State of Colorado
  • Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run
    Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run
    The Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run is an ultramarathon in length, with of climb at an average elevation of over . The race is held on a loop course on 4WD roads, dirt trails, and cross country in Southern Colorado's San Juan Range, USA...

  • KSJC-LP Radio
    KSJC-LP
    KSJC-LP is a Freeform formatted broadcast radio station licensed to and serving Silverton, Colorado. KSJC-LP is owned and operated by Silverton Community Radio....

     in Silverton

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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