In 1840 Otto Mears was born in Russia. When he was less than 4 years old his parents died.
When Otto was 10 he was sent to New York to live with relatives. When he was 15 he was sent to live with an uncle in San Francisco, but his uncle had all ready gone to Australia.

Now Otto Mears was an homeless orphan. The way he survived was that some people who owned a hotel nearby where his uncle lived took a liking to him and helped him. He got his first job selling newspapers thanks to their generous support. At the age 16 he got a job milking cows. He also drove a team of horses which hauled freight and mined gold.

He participated in the civil war. After the civil war he came to Colorado and opened a store. Later he built the first sawmill in the Conejos Valley. He also built a wheat mill. The wheat he raised himself he sold to the army, but they paid him very little for it.

Then gold was discovered near Leadville. Otto Mears decided he would haul his wheat up Poncha Pass to the hungry miners. He discovered it was not easy to haul the wheat up the pass. His horse drawn wagon lerched over the rocky ground. Most of the time it rained and the wheels of the wagon got stuck in the mud. Close to the top of the pass he had an accident. One of the wagons spilled and all of the valuable wheat fell down the mountain! That was much too much for Otto. So right then and there Otto decided to hack out a toll road. So he did! The most famous road he built is called the Million Dollar Highway.

Pretty soon he was hacking roads all over the mountains to town where both gold and silver had been found. Later Otto built railroads on top of these roads. His most famous railroad is the Durango-Silverton Railroad which people still ride on.

When Otto Mears died in 1931 his ashes were scattered beside the Million Dollar Highway.

We got our information from
Tales, Trails and Tommyknockers by Myriam Friggens
and this web site.