Long before the Hollywood hip and staggeringly rich “discovered” this charming little playground tucked into the jaw-dropping scenery of the San Juan Mountains, the town of Telluride (pop. 2,200) had already seen plenty of action.
Founded in 1878, its history is filled with fortunes of gold and other minerals won and lost, a broken treaty with the Ute Indians, bloody mining strikes and a booming red light district. It was distinguished as the site of Butch Cassidy’s very first bank robbery.
A certain female scientist named Marie Curie is said to have paid a visit to the area in 1898 to buy a bit of uranium ore. Telluride was the first city in the world to have electric street lights.
By the 1950s, the mines had closed and the isolated location left Telluride a ghost town for all intents and purposes for nearly 20 years. But the snow, once the bane of miners, became its newest gold. The first ski lift was installed in 1974. Along with skiing, the town now hosts numerous world-renowned festivals, including the Telluride Film Festival and Bluegrass Festival.
Some say Telluride – only 10 blocks long and five blocks wide with nary a stoplight or fast-food chain in sight – is named for the element Tellurium. A more colorful theory is that the name comes from the cry of miners plunging into the rugged cliffs: To-hell-you-ride!
