town, seat (1876) of San Juan county, southwestern Colorado, U.S. Located at an elevation of 9,318 feet (2,840 metres), Silverton grew from an assemblage of gold-rush mining shacks in the early 1870s to a handsome Victorian community, most of whose buildings still stand; the entire town is designated as a National Historic Landmark. Gold mining gave way to the extraction of silver in the 1880s; production continued, albeit modestly, after the collapse of the world silver market in 1893. The last working mine closed in 1991, and the town now relies almost entirely on tourism. A scenic road, locally called the “Million-Dollar Highway,” forms a part of the San Juan Skyway and connects Silverton to Durango and Ouray. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which runs in the summer months, is a major attraction. The headwaters of the Rio Grande, one of North America's longest rivers, lie in the Rio Grande National Forest to the northeast. Inc. 1876. Pop. (1990) 716; (2000) 531.