1955 Map of Telluride

About this map

The high alpine mining landscape of the San Juan Mountains centers on the valley of the San Miguel River, where the town of Telluride and the nearby settlement of Pandora supported a massive network of hard-rock extraction. Surveyed in the mid-1950s, this area shows the infrastructure of an era when industrial mining still defined the local geography, featuring extensive tailings ponds and the Pandora Mill. The map documents numerous vertical operations including the Smuggler Mine, Humboldt Mine, and Argentine Mine, many connected by a subterranean labyrinth of tunnels like the Stilwell Tunnel and Bullion Tunnel. High basins such as Savage Basin and Marshall Basin reveal the sites of earlier high-altitude activity, most notably the Tomboy ruins. Outside the industrial core, the landscape transitions to the peaks of the Uncompahgre National Forest, where the Alta Lakes and the Lone Tree Cem provide evidence of isolated mountain communities and cemeteries.