Otto Mears (May 3, 1840 – June 24, 1931) was a famous

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, 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 wes ...

railroad builder and entrepreneur who played a major role in the early development of southwestern Colorado. Mears was known as the "Pathfinder of the San Juans" because of his road and railroad building projects through Colorado's

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 ...

in the late 19th century. He built hundreds of miles of toll roads in the rough terrain of the young state of Colorado, notably 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.

over Red Mountain Pass, connecting Silverton to Ouray.

Early life and education

Born in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

formerly part of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

of Jewish parentage to a Russian mother and a British father, Otto Mears was orphaned at age 3. He was sent as a boy to the United States to live with relatives who had emigrated there, and sailed to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

at age 11 where he lived on his own as an orphan without relatives. Mears served in the California Volunteer Infantry during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. He was mustered out in late 1864 and stayed in New Mexico managing the Gallup Mercantile Co.

Career

Later Mears worked the gold fields of California before settling in Colorado, where he would make his name. He initially settled in

Conejos County Conejos County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,461. The county seat is the unincorporated community of Conejos. Being 50.7% Hispanic in 2020, Conejos was Colorado's largest Hispa ...

in Colorado Territory, but soon moved to

Saguache, Colorado Saguache (suh-WATCH ) is a Statutory Town in and the county seat of Saguache County, Colorado, United States. The population was 493 at the U.S. Census 2010. History Saguache is a small historical village in an agricultural area in southern ...

, then to the San Juans. A wheat farmer in Saguache, Mears first built a road over

Poncha Pass Poncha Pass (9,010 ft/2,745 m) is a mountain pass in South-Central Colorado (USA). It lies between the San Luis Valley to the south and the valley of the Arkansas River to the north, and is one of the lowest mountain passes in the state. I ...

to gain access to the flour mill at Nathrop, which served the

Leadville The City of Leadville is a statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,602 at the 2010 census and an estimated ...

market. Mears told a story many times in his life that his decision to become a road builder followed an encounter with William Gilpin, former Territorial Governor of Colorado, on Poncha Pass while struggling to bring his flour to market over the poorly built road. He applied to the Colorado legislature for

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...

charters for his roads and built the roads in conformations and at grades suitable for railways. His routes over Poncha Pass and

Marshall Pass Marshall Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central-southern Colorado, US. It lies in northern Saguache County on the Continental Divide between the Sawatch Range to the north and the Cochetopa Hills to the south. Th ...

were purchased for road beds by the

Denver and Rio Grande The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from De ...

railway. Mears built several railroads during his 91 years, including the

Rio Grande Southern Railroad The Rio Grande Southern Railroad (reporting mark RGS, also referred to as "The Southern") was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge railroad which ran in the southwestern region of the US state of Colorado, from the towns of Durango to Ridgway, ...

from Durango to Ridgway, 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 d ...

, and the

Silverton Northern Railroad The Silverton Northern Railroad, now defunct, was an American Narrow Gauge Railroad constructed to reach the mining area north of Silverton, Colorado along the upper Animas River. This line was the third railroad project built by known Colorado ...

. Several of his railroads were narrow gauge. From 1888 to 1892, Mears issued special railroad passes to dignitaries and friends to allow them to ride free on any of his lines. Some of these rare passes were made of silver or gold and are now highly prized collectors' items. A Master List of all of the presently known Otto Mears unique passes for the Silverton Railroad and the Rio Grande Southern Railroad is on line at San Juan County Historical Society.org under "Mears Passes". In 1876, the state legislature selected Mears as one of Colorado's three presidential electors supporting Republican

Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...

. In the 1880s, Mears was elected to the Colorado legislature. The panic of 1893 reduced the value of his investments. He had to sell much property and lost control of his railroad holdings. Mears moved to the East Coast and became involved in railroad and manufacturing ventures there. One of his most successful railroads on the east coast was the Chesapeake Beach Railway, which ran between

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and southern

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The dome of the

Colorado State Capitol The Colorado State Capitol Building, located at 200 East Colfax Avenue in Denver, Colorado, United States, is the home of the Colorado General Assembly and the offices of the Governor of Colorado and Lieutenant Governor of Colorado. History ...

building was originally covered in copper. After the weather tarnished the

copper sheathing Copper sheathing is the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat from the corrosive effects of salt water and biofouling through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by ...

, Mears suggested covering the dome with gold. He persuaded the Colorado Mining Association to donate 200 ounces of gold for the project, and by 1908, the dome's first gilding was complete. Otto Mears died on June 24, 1931, in Pasadena, California. In 1964, he was inducted into the

Hall of Great Westerners The Hall of Great Westerners was established by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1958. Located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., the Hall was created to celebrate the contributions of more than 200 men and women of the American ...

of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Mears Peak Mears Peak is a mountain summit located on the common boundary of Ouray County with San Miguel County, in Colorado, United States. It is situated six miles northwest of the community of Telluride, in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness, on land man ...

in the San Juan Mountains is named after him.Stewart M. Green, ''Scenic Driving Colorado: Exploring the State's Most Spectacular Back Roads'', 2019, Globe Pequot, , page 254.

References

Works Cited

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External links

Durango RV Park web site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mears, Otto American railroad executives 1839 births 1931 deaths Colorado Mining Boom People from Saguache County, Colorado Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American people of Russian-Jewish descent San Juan Mountains (Colorado)