Then and Again over the Million Dollar Highway
The Then and Again trip over the Million Dollar Highway!
The Million Dollar Highway, also known as Red Mountain Pass or a section of Colorado Highway 550, is by my definition the section of pavement that connects Ouray to Silverton Colorado. As a then and again subject I find it quite remarkable how little this road has changed in around a 100 years. I try to remember that it was not too long ago that this road resembled many of our local 4×4 roads such as Engineer Pass. One story of its name (the Million Dollar Highway) claims that the 9 mile section of this road from the town of Ouray to the point when you reach Ironton Park, the most extreme section that climbs up a canyon with darn near vertical walls, was going to be improved to make it more passable by automobiles in the 192o’s. The nine miles was sectioned into 3 parts and contractors bid on the 3 sections. After the 3 contractors where chosen, the 3 bids came to within just penny’s of a million dollars, which in the 20′s was a huge amount of money for a 9 mile section of road. Today they can spend darn near that much on a road sign! The CDOT guy in charge was the one who started coining the phrase Million $ Highway. But my point is that it was improved in the 20′s and I think paved during the 50/60′s and worked on many a time over the years, yet looks so unchanged!
The Million Dollar Highway just past Bear Creek Falls, view of Mount Abram-
Mount Abram, then the Million Dollar Highway
Mount Abram Again!
Link to The Then and Again trip over the Million Dollar Highway! The Ruby Wall-
good job clay, keep it up
Thanks Stu!
When building the highway in the 1880s, workers were often lowered by rope hundreds of feet down the steep canyon walls to carve a roadbed through the most inaccessible sections.
The Million Dollar Highway between Silverton and Ouray follows an old toll road that was started in 1880 and finished in 1884 by road builder and transportation magnate Otto Mears. The road operated as a mail, stage, and freight line until Mears opened his Rainbow Route railway from Silverton to the rich mines at the summit of Red Mountain Pass. The Million Dollar Highway, traversing the old rail and wagon route, was completed in 1924. The road section from Ouray to Red Mountain Pass cost about a million dollars to build, which gave the highway its name.
Idunn, I just want to make sure you understand that I realize your point is view is a valid point of view. And so I don’t give it short shrift. And, you expressed yourself well. I guess my point of view is that there are a couple of types of highways in Colorado. One type are what I’ll call highways of choice. Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mtn. Nat’l. Park, Rim Road in Colorado National Monument, the highways up Pikes Peak and Mount Evans, the road over Guanella Pass, and so forth. With rare exceptions, those roads are tourist roads, and no one has to drive over them. Route 550 certainly has its tourists. But for many people it’s not a road of choice. It is a federal numbered highway that connects western New Mexico (from the Albuquerque and Farmington areas) to a number of communities in western Colorado (Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Montrose, Delta, and Grand Junction…more communities than much of I-25 at similar latitudes). Commercial trucks (including gasoline tankers) make commercial deliveries over it on a daily basis, ambulances use it, school buses use it, and lots of everyday drivers who are not tourists. It’s part of the National Highway System, and I’ve traveled an awfully lot, and I can’t think of another federal highway that has the conditions US-550 has in some spots. That’s not to say I haven’t been on scarier roads. The scariest road I’ve driven on is route 120 going east out of Yosemite National Park…but that’s not part of the federal highway system, it’s a state highway open only for a few months each summer, and is used almost exclusively for tourism purposes. Well, there’s not much more to say. I think Colorado ought to better on a few sections of this federally recognized highway. And again, I’m not saying redo the entire stretch of highway…just a few sections, and to do that in a way that doesn’t totally detract from the beauty of what’s there.