The Maverick Queen

The town of Silverton is a Statutory Town that is the county seat of, and the only incorporated municipality in San Juan County, Colorado, United States. Silverton is a former silver mining camp, most or all of which is now included in a federally designated National Historic Landmark District, the... Silverton Historic District. The town population was 531 at U.S. Census 2000. Silverton is linked to Durango by the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a National Historic Landmark. Silverton no longer has active mining, but subsists by tourism, maintenance of US 550 , mine pollution remediation, and retirees. Silverton is located at 37°48′45″N 107°39′47″W / 37.8125°N 107.66306°W / 37.8125; -107.66306 . According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.8 square miles , all of it land. Silverton is one of the highest towns in the United States, at 9,305 feet above sea level. As of the census of 2000, there were 531 people, 255 households, and 149 families residing in the town. The population density was 656.0 people per square mile .
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The Royal Gorge is a canyon on the Arkansas River near Cañon City, Colorado. With a width of 50 feet at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of 1,250 feet in places, the 10-mile-long canyon is a narrow, steep gorge through the granite of Fremont Peak. It is one of the... deepest canyons in Colorado. The path of the Arkansas River was already set when the granite uplift that would eventually form the Rocky Mountains began. About 3 million years ago as the mountains began to rise from the surrounding plains, the Arkansas River--then only a small rivulet--began to wear away at the stone it flowed across. Scientists estimate that the mountains surrounding the canyon rose at a rate of approximately one foot every 2500 years. Over the millennia, this small stream grew, cutting a deep channel for itself through the surrounding granite. The gorge's peculiar shape, contrasted to broad canyons such as the Grand Canyon, can be attributed to this long, direct erosion through hard rock. Before European settlement, Native Americans of the Ute people wintered in Royal Gorge for its protection from wind and relatively mild climate.
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