Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1879. The railroad arrived in Durango on August 5, 1881 and construction on the line to Silverton began in the fall of the same year. By July of 1882 (amazingly, only 9 months after construction began) the tracks to Silverton were completed, and the train began hauling both freight and passengers. The line was constructed to haul silver & gold ore from the San Juan Mountains, but passengers soon realized it was the view that was truly precious. This historic train has been in continuous operation for 125 years, carrying passengers behind vintage steam locomotives. The town of Silverton caters to tourists exclusively as near as we can tell. We left Durango at 9:45 am for a 3 and 1 ½ hour ride, had a 2 hour layover to eat and shop and then rode back to Durango arriving at 7 pm. It was a long day. Then we had a 2 ½ hour (normally) trip back to Montrose. However about 8:45 we came upon a traffic stop. We were stopped there for a little over an hour before we found out there at been a huge mud slide on the verrrrrrrrry curvy mountain road. The road crews were just finishing the clearing and we made it home safely. Apparently rock slides and mud slides are very common in this area.