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, which ran from Ridgway, founded by Mears as the headquarters, through Telluride and Rico to Durango. The line was 162 miles long and crossed more than 140 bridges and trestles, with construction completed in December 1891. After early success, during which Mears issued silver and gold passes and planned to extend the line to the west coast, the crash of silver prices in 1893 and the closing of most of Colorado's mines dramatically affected the state's railroads, and the R.G.S. slid into receivership. For the next 60 years, the line survived despite snowstorms, rock slides, and economic disasters. During the Great Depression, it depended on a mail contract for steady cash flow, and because delivering mail by steam train was expensive, 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 stayed in business through 1951.