Durango Fun Facts

• Durango's name comes from the Basque word Urango meaning water town.
  
  
• Durango, home of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNGRR) is located in the Animas River Valley and is surrounded by the San Juan Mountains in La Plata County, Colorado.
  
  
• Durango is located at the intersection of US Highways 160 and 550 and the city comprises 5.6 square miles.
  
  
• Colorado Governor A.G. Hunt gave our town its name after Durango, Mexico.
  
  
• The downtown Durango area has almost as many restaurants per capita as San Francisco, the restaurant capital of the western United States!
  
  
• Anasazi Indians were the first settlers in the area but vacated the four-corners around 1300.
  
  
• The term Anasazi Indians has been replaced with Ancestral Puebloans.
  
  
• Mesa Verde National Park was established as a National Park in 1906.
  
  
• The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company founded the town of Durango in 1880.
  
  
• The Durango railroad depot looks the same as it was constructed in 1882.
  
  
• The railroad tracks reached Silverton in July 1882. Laborers were paid an average of $2.25 a day.
  
  
• The narrow gauge rails are thirty-six inches apart, while standard gauge rails are fifty-six inches apart.
  
  
• Locomotives used by the D&SNGRR are from the 470-480 series, manufactured between the years of 1923-25.
  
  
• The D&SNGRR has carried over three hundred million dollars in precious metals.
  
  
• The roundhouse burned on February 10, 1989. The fire destroyed the roundhouse and damaged 6 of the locomotives. This did not prevent the train from running as scheduled that year in May.
  
  
• The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad carries approximately 200,000 passengers a year.
  
  
• The D&SNGRR uses 10,000 gallons of water per round-trip and 12,000 pounds of coal; the coal is shoveled one shovelful at a time.
  
  
• The Animas Rivers official name is El Rio de las Animas Perdidas, roughly translated, this means, The River of Lost Souls. The Spanish explorers named the river after several explorers traveled on the river and were lost. Their bodies were never found, and last rites could not be administered, being devoted Catholics, they believed the dead mens souls could not enter heaven and would be relegated to Purgatory.
  
  
• This legend also explains the name of our ski mountain, Purgatory Resort. Purgatory Creek is near lift 4 at the ski area. Purgatory Resort was renamed in 1999 and is now known as Durango Mountain Resort at Purgatory. The original resort opened in 1965.
  
  
• The word, Hermosa means beautiful in Spanish. Hermosa Cliffs is located north of Durango.
  
  
• The Animas is one of the last free-flowing rivers in the entire Western United States.
  
  
• There is a two-mile stretch on the Animas River that is gold medal water. Gold Medal water has the highest quality of fishing for large trout. Lures and flies only in this stretch of water.
  
  
• Average yearly peak flows are measured in Durango at around 5,000 cubic feet per second. During years of high runoff, the volume reaches 7,000 cubic feet per second.
  
  
• The Strater Hotel, Durango's elegant landmark, was built in 1887.
  Jack Dempsey fought Andy Malloy on October 7, 1915 in the Jarvis Suites Hotel. Dempsey, born in southern Colorado, became the heavy weight champion in 1919.
  
  
• The Iron Horse Bike Classic began in 1972. The road bikers race the D&SNGRR to Silverton on Memorial Day weekend. It is the longest continuously run cycling event in the United States.
  
  
• Fort Lewis College was originally an Indian school located on the Ute Reservation.
  
  
• Many buildings in historic downtown Durango are built with bricks and stone due to a city ordinance that was enacted after a fire in the summer of 1889 that damaged seven blocks on Main Avenue.
  
  
• The local newspaper, The Durango Herald was originally The Durango Democrat in the 1880s.
  
  
• The honeybees in Honeyville live for 6 weeks working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They also fly at speeds as fast as 14 miles an hour.
  
  
• The Diamond Belle Saloon opened its doors in 1957 and has a bullet hole in the far east drawer behind the bar.
  
  
• Diamond Circle Melodrama had its first production in 1962.
  
  
• 1,200 members of the Southern Ute Tribe live in Ignacio.
  
  
• Trimble Hot Springs' mineral water contains the following minerals: zinc, sulfate, sodium, potassium, phosphate, nitrogen, manganese, magnesium, lithium, iron, fluoride, chloride, calcium and boron.
  
  
• The Columbine, Colorado's state flower, thrives in moist, cool habitats of the Sub-Alpine zone.
  
  
• Louis L'Amour wrote the Sackett Series, a set of western novels while staying at The Strater Hotel.
  
  
• The original owner of the Strater Hotel, Henry Strater, was a pharmacist.