Howardsville

Howardsville was the first attempted settlement on the Western Slope of Colorado Territory, though it was never platted or incorporated. Founded in 1874, it received the first post office designation in the San Juan Mountains and became the county seat of La Plata County, which then covered all of southwestern Colorado, before losing that status to Silverton in the fall 1874 election. Pioneer George W. Howard, who had prospected in the San Juan Mountains before the Civil War, located his first mining claim in 1872 and built the first cabin in 1873. The arrival of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway in Silverton in 1882 reduced Howardsville's importance, but the settlement survived into the 1940s as the Little Nation Tram House and Mill and the various locations and remodelings of the Pride of the West Mill kept the camp viable. It had a post office from 1874 to 1939 but never became the major community it had hoped to be.

Colorado · United States