Silverton has an alpine subarctic climate with very cold, snowy winters and cool to warm summers with adequate precipitation year-round.
History
Charles Baker's group of prospectors found traces of placer gold in the San Juan Mountains in 1860 at Eureka, Colorado. Forced out by the Ute Tribe in 1861, who had been awarded the area in a US treaty. The prospectors returned in 1871, when lode gold was found in the Little Giant vein at Arrastre Gulch. The miners were allowed to stay after the Brunot Treaty of 13 September 1873. In exchange for giving up, the Southern Ute Indian Reservation received $25,000 per year. In August 1873, George Howard and R. J. McNutt discovered the Sunnyside silver vein along Hurricane Peak. Gold was then discovered in 1882. The Sunnyside Mine was shut down after the 1929 stock market crash, but was acquired by Standard Metals Corp. in 1959, and reopened, finding gold in 1973 with the Little Mary vein. Half of Colorado's gold production in the 1970s came from the Sunnyside. Disaster occurred on 4 June 1978, when the water from Lake Emma collapsed a mine shaft, and then traveled quickly through the tunnels, finally shooting out of a portal along Cement Creek with a force that toppled a 20-ton locomotive. The mine reopened after two years, but was acquired by Echo Bay Mines in 1986, which operated the mine for another five years. The nearby Gold King mine breached and spilled into Cement Creek, causing the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill. In the early 1960s Kendall Mountain Ski Area opened by the Grand Imperial Hotel.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 531 people, 255 households, and 149 families residing in the town. The population density was 656.0 people per square mile. There were 430 housing units at an average density of 531.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 97.36% White, 0.75% Native American, 0.38% Pacific Islander, 0.75% from other races, 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 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 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.
Anton Larson, Trooper in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, Spanish–American War
Arthur Pink, evangelical pastor and writer, lived in Silverton briefly
Harold Ross, founding editor of The New Yorker who was a native of Aspen, Colorado
Bill Alsup, former IndyCar driver
In popular culture
In the novelThe Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson, the main setting is in Silverton. Country singer C. W. McCall recorded "The Silverton," about the Silverton and Durango Railroad, on his 1975 album Black Bear Road. Night Passage was filmed in Silverton and Durango, Colorado. Shaun White's secret training facility for the Vancouver Olympics called "Project X" was located on Silverton Mountain. The board game Silverton by Mayfair Games is named after this location.
