Otto Mears is remembered as one of those bigger-than-life western trailblazers. Locally he is honored as the builder of the Million Dollar Highway and even has his own roadside monument a few miles south of Ouray. These words are carved into the granite:

“Pathfinder of the San Juans

Pioneer Road Builder

Built this road in 1881”

Mears was born in Kurland, Russia, in 1840 to an English father and Russian mother. Orphaned as a 3-year-old, the family began “passing” him around to relatives in Ru...