The American West, including the Western Slope of Colorado, experienced significant population growth in the latter decades of the 19th century.
“Boosterism” was one of the government strategies used to encourage this movement. “Free” land, maps, programs, dime novels, road construction and trains were all part of “boosting” the westward movement.
Post offices appeared overnight in diverse locations like mining camps, tent cities and new settlements. These post offices in remote and new areas brought familiarity and civility to frontier life.
They were vital lifelines for communication, commerce and connection, and they laid the groundwork for communities to thrive and grow.
Imagine those early settlers, miles from home, pouring their hearts out in letters to family back East. These were not just “hellos”; they were often detailed dispatches about life on the frontier. To ensure mail reached every corner, the Post Office Department created extensive postal routes used by stagecoaches, ferries, and railroads.
The social impact of the postal service was immense. Newspapers and other publications arrived by mail. For businesses, the post office was indispensable, maintaining commercial relationships and allowing rural customers to order and receive goods through parcel post. The post office even got into banking! The Postal Savings System, established in 1911, offered basic financial services in places where traditional banks were scarce.
Through rain, snow, avalanches and rockslides
In places like Ouray County, post offices seemed to materialize overnight, mirroring the rapid boom and bust cycles of the mining era. You can see it in their years of service:
• Ouray: 1876-present
• Rose’s Cabin: late 1870s through 1880s (just north of Ouray)
• Red Mountain Town: 1883-1895
• Ironton: 1883-1920
• Dallas: 1884-1899
• Colona: 1891-1943
• Guston: 1892-1898
• Ridgway: 1892-present Eventually those eight Ouray County post offices dwindled down to two today in Ouray and Ridgway.
Mail delivery to Ouray’s rugged mining camps began in 1875 from Uncompahgre, which soon became Ouray. The legendary Otto Mears held that very first government mail contract — $30 per delivery to the mining camps. Those early mail carriers, Mears included, battled the harsh winters with dog sleds, skis and snowshoes to get the mail through.
Captain Milton Cline became Ouray’s first postmaster in 1876, initially doling out mail from his tent before a “proper” log building went up in 1877. Over the years, the post office bounced around various downtown buildings, finally landing in its current home at 620 Main St. in 1965.
And Ridgway? Currently, the post office is located at 485 Clinton St. This building is on the movie set for the stable during the filming of “True Grit” in 1968. Details are sketchy for other historic post office locations. From 1906 to 1916, and again from the early 1930s until 1954, the Ridgway post office was located at 540 Clinton St. in a building known as the Jeffers Building.
Messages from the past, echoes in the present Thanks to the amazing work of historical societies, museums and archives, we can still read some letters from those early settlers. It is not hard to imagine their words to loved ones back home, filled with both awe and the realities of frontier life:
• “The mountains, waterfalls, and meadows are beautiful.”
• “Yesterday I saw a (choose one of the following: bear, mountain lion, bald eagle, lynx, coyote).”
• “Life here is both wonderful and hard, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.” If we still wrote letters today, our words about life in Ouray County might just echo those same sentiments. After all these years, some things about this incredible place truly remain timeless.
Sources include historycolorado.org, loc.gov, usps.com, legendsofamerica.com, coloradodrencyclopedia.org, townofridgway. gov, and ridgwaycolroado.com.
Carolyn Snowbarger is a retired educator. After teaching middle schoolers in Olathe, Kansas, for 28 years, she and her husband Vince moved to Washington, D.C. She directed the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative at the U.S.Department of Education and then managed continuing education programs for the American Institute of Architects. The Snowbargers moved to Ridgway in 2013 after decades of San Juan family vacations.
