OURAY COUNTY, COLORADO GENWEb PROJECT

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Ouray County was founded in 1877 when it was carved out of Hinsdale and San Juan Counties.  It was the first county created under the statehood of Colorado.  It covers 542 square miles and has an estimated population of 3,742.  The county seat, also named Ouray, was incorporated in 1876 and has a year round population of about 700.  Ridgway is the only other still incorporated town with a year round population of about 650.  During the late 19th and early 20th centuries mining was the chief industry.  Today, although there is still some mining, the chief industry is tourism.
   

It is little wonder tourists are attracted to this area, with the San Juan range, known as the "shining mountains" to the Ute Indians, the youngset and most rugged of the Colorado Rockies covering the southern part of the county.  The county has the 28th (Mount Sneffels, 14150 ft) and 48th (Wetterhorn Peak 14015 ft.) highest peaks of Colorado's 14ners Club.  Not to mention another ten 13000 feet or higher mountains within the county borders.

Crofutt's Grip-Sack Guide of Colorado 1885
"The site of Ouray is one of great beauty being just inside of the canon of the Uncompahgre River. . .On all sides the canon walls and mountains rise, range upon range, peak overshadowing peak, all grooved and furrowed by the hand of the Great Maker, from the tiniest wrinkle to a chasm of most gigantic proportions, from the smallest depression and most rugged ravine to one of the grandest canons in the world."

Letters of Ayn Rand
(Ouray is the town which Ayn Rand used as a model for the utopian city of Galt's Gulch in her book Atlas Shrugged.)
". . .Speaking of Atlas Shrugged, I was amused (benevolently) to hear that you chose Ouray as your favorite spot in Colorado. That is the little town I had picked for Galt's Gulch. To be exact, I marked it on a map as the right location long before I saw it. Then, when I went to Colorado for research purposes and discovered Ouray, I fell in love with it. It is the most beautifully dramatic spot in the whole state, and it's even surrounded by a ring of mountains. . ."