Otto Mears, a Russian immigrant known as the "Pathfinder of the San Juans," developed a network of toll roads and narrow gauge railroads that established the routes of most of this area's highways. His crowning achievement was the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, incorporated in 1889 and running from Ridgway, which he founded as its headquarters, through Telluride and Rico to Durango. The line was 162 miles long, crossed more than 140 bridges and trestles, and was completed in December 1891. After early success, with silver and gold passes issued and plans to extend the line to the west coast, the 1893 crash of silver prices and the closing of most of Colorado's mines badly hurt the state's railroads and pushed the R.G.S. into receivership. For the next 60 years, the line survived snowstorms, rock slides, and economic disasters. During the Great Depression, it relied on a mail contract for steady cash flow, and because steam trains were expensive for mail delivery, management built automobile-based rail buses in the Ridgway roundhouse to carry mail, passengers, and light freight. Seven of these vehicles, known as the "Galloping Geese," were so successful that the railroad remained in business through 1951.