Red Mountain is a set of three peaks in the
San Juan Mountains
The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...
of western
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
in the United States, about south of
Ouray. The mountains get their name from the reddish
iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...
rocks that cover the surface. Several other peaks in the San Juan Mountains likewise have prominent reddish coloration from iron ore and are also called "Red Mountain".
Nearby
Red Mountain Pass is named after Red Mountain, and the
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
mining camp of
Red Mountain Town is located around Red Mountain.
Red Mountain Town
Following sporadic settling of the region in the 1870s, a series of permanent
mining towns were founded in what became known as the Red Mountain Mining District. Among these was Red Mountain Town, which was founded following discoveries of
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
in 1882.
Other communities in the area included
Ironton and
Guston, which were eventually connected with the larger towns of
Silverton and
Ouray via the
Silverton Railroad
The Silverton Railroad, now defunct, was an American narrow gauge railroad constructed between Silverton, Colorado and mining districts near Red Mountain Pass, Colorado.
The Silverton Railroad is remembered for the innovative solutions to ...
and later the
Million Dollar Highway
U.S. Route 550 (US 550) is a spur of U.S. Highway 50 that runs from Bernalillo, New Mexico to Montrose, Colorado in the western United States. The section from Silverton to Ouray is frequently called the Million Dollar Highway. .
Gallery
File:Red Mountain from Imogene Pass.jpg, West aspect, from Imogene Pass
File:RedMountainNumber3.jpg, Red Mountain Number 3 with the ghost town of Red Mountain.
File:Red Mountain reflected in Crystal Lake (10 miles south of Ouray, Colorado).jpg, Red Mountain reflected in Crystal Lake
See also
*
List of Colorado mountain ranges
This is a list of the major mountain ranges in the United States, U.S. Colorado, State of Colorado. All of these ranges are considered subranges of the Southern Rocky Mountains.
As given in the table, Elevation, topographic elevation is the ver ...
*
List of Colorado mountain summits
**
List of Colorado fourteeners
This is a list of mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado that exceed of elevation.
In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a ''fourteener'' is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. This is a co ...
**
List of Colorado 4000 meter prominent summits
**
List of the most prominent summits of Colorado
The following sortable table comprises the 100 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.
Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea le ...
*
List of Colorado county high points
This is a list of all 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado is the summit of Mount ...
References
Mountains of Ouray County, Colorado
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
North American 3000 m summits
Mountains of Colorado
{{Colorado-geo-stub