Founded in 1874, Silverton was an isolated mining town whose first buildings stood 125 miles from the nearest post office, and even after railroad service began in 1882, snowdrifts often cut it off for weeks. Its climate and topography made farming nearly impossible, so residents depended largely on imported food, while rich deposits of gold, silver, iron, lead, zinc, and copper sustained prosperity for many decades. That remoteness later helped preserve the town’s scenery and Victorian character, encouraging a strong tourist industry in the mid-twentieth century. Silverton was also devastated by the influenza epidemic of 1918, which reached the town in mid-October and for about a month emptied the streets, closed schools and businesses, and confined residents to their homes. Even so, three in four people became ill and one in ten died, perhaps the highest fatality rate in the nation; the hospital overflowed into makeshift wards in Town Hall, and even the undertaker and one of the nurses died. The epidemic ended in December, but Silverton then faced further hardship as its mining industry declined after World War I, damaging the local economy for decades.