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The early morning sun rising over the High Uintas cast shadows onto the rock-hard corduroy. A feeling of joy came over me as I set an edge in the snow, linking arcs down the frozen mountainside. It’s springtime in the Wasatch!
In the spring of 1981, my dad loaded me into a snowcat at the base of some mountains about a mile from where we lived. We rumbled up freshly cut paths through the aspens and pines. This was Deer Valley before there were lifts. I remember skiing Nabob and Solid Muldoon and thinking both were funny names for ski runs. I still think they are, more than 43 years later.
Heed this warning: Don’t read on if you don’t want to know about the perils of living and dying in early Ouray County.
During the last half of the 19th century, prospectors found gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc in the northern San Juan Mountains. The news spread quickly, and thousands more came to this region. However, mountain mining was dangerous work, with frequent cave-ins, explosions, rockslides and avalanches.
The stone building at 420 Sixth Ave. in Ouray has plenty of stories to tell.